The Threads of Fate
by Little Miss Jigsaw
Summary: After returning from France Lara finds herself in search of ancient items once owned by the Fates themselves But what shouldve been a quick job turns into a struggle against destiny itself when she is thrown into a race for a key to controlling Fate LC
1. Recovery

Alrighty then... This is my first Tomb Raider fic, so ya know, be gentle, but, it's far from my first fic (check the profile), so I wouldn't say it's totally horrible... I beg of you all to please, please review and let me know what you think... Let me know if I go OOC with the characters -I think Zip and Alister may be a bit off in the first couple of chapters, since I hadn't seen much of Legend when I started writing this so I wasn't too sure on how to write them. Especially Lara. It's really hard to write for her...

This takes place between AOD and Legend (and if the story goes the way I think it will, it will tie into Legend at the end.) so I tried to use aspects of both sides of Lara, from the two games... but I think she came off more like the Legend Lara than anything else. 

Anyway... Reviews are greatly appreciated, enjoy.

_Threads Of Fate_

_Chapter One_

_Recovery_

Lara Croft lay sprawled on the mat that covered the floor of her gym, trying to regain some air in her lungs, before she tried to get up. She coughed, and spit a bit of blood onto the blue mat. That had been a particularly nasty fall, from the bars above, resulting in a rather sore stomach, and several tooth-shaped holes in her tongue, and bottom lip. Just a few more injuries to go with the ones that were still healing. Wonderful. She wiped the blood from her lip, and chin, before shoving herself to her feet, with a pained groan.

Her body was a patchwork of bruises, in various shades of blue, black and purple, some of which had faded, and many cuts, gashes, burns, and, according to x-rays, a few cracked bones, and a formerly dislocated shoulder. Such was the life of a Tomb Raider, but, she wasn't usually this bad off. Paris and Prague hadn't been kind to her. She stretched, causing more than one joint to pop in protest, and her body to ache. Later, a long, and very hot shower was in order, along with a heavy dose of painkillers, followed by sleep. She'd made a mistake by trying to start training again already and this she knew. It had been only a week since she'd returned from France, battered, and looking like she'd come out on the worse end of a fight with a rhino... but it'd been two, since she'd made it out of the Strahov.

Winston had not stopped fussing over her, yet, and Zip and Alister insisted that she take a break from her tomb raiding until she was fully healed. Although Lara had put up a fight to this, she'd agreed, knowing that her friends were right. Still, it didn't feel right, to just sit around, and do nothing, when she was so used to always doing something, be it research, preparation, or on an adventure its self. _oh, just one more jump can't hurt... _ She thought innocently, looking at the ramp before her... She ran for it, and just as she reached the edge, lept off it, and grabbed for the bar hanging a little ways away.

Smiling in satisfaction that she had caught the bar, Lara pulled herself up on it, and swung down, building up her momentum, until she was able to release her grip, and somersault safely to the next platform. Her still-sore legs weren't happy with her landing however, and her knees gave out, causing her to fall backwards, drop off the platform, and land hard on her back with a soft thud.

There went her breath again.

_Okay... Maybe Alister and Zip were right and I do need to take a break... _It had been a long time since she'd taken that many falls in a row. Her fight with Eckhardt and Karel had taken more out of her, physically and mentally, than she would ever care to admit.

"Brilliant move Lara," someone said from the door, "New one you learned in France?"

Zip. His comment earned him a rather rude gesture from the lady of the house, though his only reaction was to laugh. "We told you, you need a break Lara... Prague took alot out of you."

Lara nodded. Indeed it had. Alot.

"So, you ever gonna fill us in on what happened there?"

"Von Croy was murdered, I was accused, the chase began, I met up with some American with super powers, fought and killed an Alchemist and an Angel, and the American is gone. There, that's what happened," Lara replied, trying to make the events sound like nothing. Zip knew she was faking. Something else had happened, and from her tone, it had to do with the guy she'd met. So he decided to see if he couldn't get a bit of info out of her.

"Do you mean gone as in dead, or gone as in is okay, and took off?"

"Gone as in I don't know..." Lara replied, sounding more than a little bitter. With that she strode off, out the other door, and down to the kitchen, to grab a snack before she went to bed... Hopefully she'd be in bed before Zip was able to reach Winston, and tell him what she had been up too.

--------------------

_Two Weeks Earlier_

Lara was wishing for a light right about then. Boaz's lair was pitch black. The only thing guiding her was Kurtis' Chirugai, that she'd found in the previous chamber, lying in a pool of blood. The bladed disk pulled her in different directions now and then, if she strayed off course. Suddenly, the blades sprang out again, and the weapon began to glow, and it shot forward, and Lara heard a rather sickening pop, followed by an even more sickening flare of pain, signaling that her shoulder had just been yanked out of socket.

She ignored the pain, and followed the glowing disk, until it led her to a dark form, sitting against the wall, head hung low.

"Kur- Ah!" she was cut off when the chirugai yanked out of her hand, "Kurtis?"

She knelt in front of him, and lifted his face with her good hand to get a better look at him. He was deathly pale, and while his eyes were open, they weren't full of the determined, arrogant spark she'd seen earlier. Instead, his beautiful sapphire orbs were dull, and darkened with pain. For a moment Lara wondered if he could see her, or was even conscious, for he didn't react to her right away. Kurtis finally blinked, and there was a hint of recognition in his eyes.

"L-...Lara?"

"What happened to 'I can take care of her'?" Lara asked, looking at the gaping hole in the demon hunter's midsection.

"I... Wasn't betting on there... being a fucking fairy on steroids..." was the annoyed reply. He suddenly laughed, which turned into a cough, that sprayed droplets of blood onto Lara's face, "Killed by a fairy... Father will be... turning over in his grave... laughing his ass off..."

"You're not dead yet," Lara reminded him, pulling bandages out of her first-aid kit. The bandages wouldn't do much in the way of healing, but they'd stop the bleeding... "And you're not going to die, either." She bandaged his wound as best as she could, with practically one hand, with protests from Kurtis the whole time. "Shut up," she said after one particular nasty remark, "Or I'll leave you here to rot. Come on."

Of course, she wouldn't leave him... There was something about him that she liked, and that was enough for her to want to help. She took his hand in her good one, and pulled him up to his feet. He had to use the wall for support but at least he could stand. He grabbed his chirugai, and hooked it onto his belt. "I guess I owe you two now... Why... Why are you helping me?"

"I said we should work together," Lara replied smoothly, "That agreement is in effect until we're out of danger, which means once we get you to a hospital..."

-----

"Ms. Croft?" Lara stood when the doctor called her name. Thankfully no one had recognized her yet, thanks to a quick change of clothes, and her hair being let down... She'd chosen clothes to hide her own injuries: bruises, cuts, burns, a few bullet-grazes, ect. It'd been two hours since she'd brought Trent into the emergency room... They'd want an explanation on his injuries soon enough, but for now it could wait...

"Is Kurtis okay?" she asked, trying to sound worried... Though she didn't have to try hard. Actually, she didn't have to try at all... But for now it was a good thing... It would make her cover-story work a bit better.

"He's alive, and conscious, and while I can't say for sure, I think he'll be fine, with a bit of rest, and a few weeks of no heavy activity... "

Again Lara didn't have to fake her feelings. She was genuinely relieved, "Can I see him?"

"Family only... You are?"

Lara knew this had been coming, so she lied, easily, "His fiance..." Hopefully the doctor would consider that close enough to family...

"Very well..." the doctor said after a moment, "But I need to ask, what happened to him? Mr. Trent has what appears to be acid burns, several broken ribs, and more than one fracture, and I don't need to mention the hole in his gut... Quite frankly he looks like he came out on the losing end of a fight with a dragon..."

_Close but no cigar, Doc... it was, in Kurtis' own words, a 'fucking fairy on steroids'_ Lara thought. But she could tell him that... Instead she said the first thing that came to mind, "We were attacked... A group of men, didn't see their faces, but they jumped us, as we were walking past the old Strahov building... " Hopefully with the rumors surrounding the Strahov, the doctor would buy that tale...

He did. Muttering something about the building needing to be torn down, he led her to Kurtis' room, and left, not even bothering to tell her that visiting hours were technically over.

Lara found it hard to believe that the man lying in the hospital bed before her was the same one who'd disarmed her in Louvre, the same man who'd taunted her with his cocky smirk, as she struggled to keep up with him in their little game of tag... The Kurtis in front of her was pale, and looked indescribably small in that bed, not bit of his arrogance left.

"Am I really so handsome that you're just going to stand there and stare like a lovestruck schoolgirl all night?" Okay, so maybe his arrogance was still intact.

"Don't make me regret saving you, Trent," Lara replied, moving to sit in the chair next to him. She winced, as her dislocated arm came in hard contact with the arm of the chair. Kurtis didn't miss this.

"You didn't even get yourself checked out? Damn, Croft, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were worried about me."

Lara glared at him, but didn't bother to debate his claim. She was too exhausted to argue... And tomorrow she had to turn herself over to the police, and clear her name... And she had to let Winston, Alister, and Zip know that she was alive, and relatively okay... Then it would be back to the hospital to keep an eye on Kurtis for a while...

------

Lara was pissed... Actually, that was a bit of an understatement. She was beyond pissed. Kurtis was gone. She'd come back from the police department for what she was sure was the last time, only to find that Kurtis had left sometime while she'd been away. According to the nurse at the front desk, he hadn't said a word, other than that she should check in her backpack...

As she stalked down the hall to his former room to grab the aforementioned object, she wondered why he'd taken off. It'd been a week since they'd escaped the Strahov, and what time she hadn't spent trying to convince the cops that she wasn't the monstrum, she'd spent with him. She now dared to call the man a friend... "I'm not hurt," she told herself, "Just angry."

She grabbed her backpack, and opened it, wondering just what it was that Kurtis felt she needed to see. She found his chirugai sitting on top of her things, vibrating a bit, showing that it's connection with its owner was still there... sitting atop the disk, though slowly being shaken off was a small slip of paper containing four simple words. "Get out of Prague"

------------------------------

_Present_

Lara watched as the chirugai zoomed back forth around her room, her chocolate eyes never straying from the glowing disk. Somehow it managed not to destroy anything in the room, though it did make a go for the window once or twice, but stopped, as if something were holding it back. What was up with the thing? And why the hell had Kurtis left it behind... Another question: Why had he warned her to get out of Prague? Not that she hadn't been glad too, but something seemed wrong... Trent had just vanished, warning her to leave, and now his little toy seemed incapable of leaving her presence... Hell yes, something was up. Not that she could find out, whilst Winston was watching her like a hawk, making sure she didn't over-exert herself, until every last cut on her was fully healed. And while she had to admit, it would be a bit longer before she was ready to be back to her tomb raiding, she couldn't stand just sitting around and wondering what was going on.

Still watching the chirugai, her thoughts drifted to its owner... Or rather, his astonishingly blue eyes... The kind of eyes she could, and had, in the Louvre, get lost in. No... No. Bad Lara. No getting attached. Never get close. He was a partner, maybe a friend. That was it... And if he ever showed up again, he'd likely be a dead friend, considering the fury she wanted to unleash on him.

The door to her room opened, and the bladed disk swerved in the air, and headed right for the door, and the one who'd opened it...

"What the bloody hell is that!" Alister squeaked, as the disk buried two of its four blades into the wood of the door, only inches from his head, "And why was it moving on its own... Or were you trying to kill me?"

Lara chuckled, "I wasn't trying to kill you, Alister, sorry... It occasionally starts flying about of its own accord."

"And you've _kept _it?" Alister looked at her as though she were crazy.

Lady Croft nodded, and shrugged, though she gave no answer as to why she'd kept it. She got up from her bed, and yanked the weapon out of the door, and placed it back on her desk, which had become its residence when it wasn't, to all appearances, trying to escape. If it moving about meant that Kurtis was calling it, then it wasn't going anywhere... Let the bastard come get it himself. "So sorry, Al... I think I'll keep it locked up from now own."

"Perhaps you should... " Alister said, adjusting his glasses. "Anyway, Winston sent me up, he wants to know if you would like breakfast in here, or in the dining room, and he also says that if anyone catches you in the gym again, he will personally see to it that the room is torched."

Lara couldn't help but laugh, "Fine, you guys win..." she sighed, "Seems jobs are slow, anyway, right?"

Alister shrugged, as he turned, and left. Despite telling him that she would, Lara didn't bother to lock the chirugai in her desk, before getting dressed.

-----------------

Despite trying to hold it in, Lara had dissolved into a fit of painfully girlish giggles, at the antics of her house mates. Zip was being rather mean to Alister, much to Lara, and Winston's amusement, though Alister's eventual retaliation had been the icing on the cake, and was the reason for Lara's laughter. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that Zip had started it on purpose in order to cheer her up. Alister was unaware of this, for all that he was a genius, he was a complete moron when it came to reading people, so he thought that Zip was just being Zip. Which he was, but this morning it was for Lara's benefit, not his own... Okay, so maybe it was a little for his own benefit.

She hadn't had a good, true laugh, since Egypt, and she was tempted to thank her little family, but she knew if she did, Zip would only deny that he'd been trying to make her laugh in the first place, Alister would look clueless as always, and Winston would only smile the way he did when he reckoned he'd been right about something. So, she held her tongue, and continued eating the breakfast that Zip had prepared.

-----------------

The room was dark, yet strangely, Lara could see everything perfectly... There was a light ahead, that kept flickering, as though someone were walking in front of it. She moved forward, quickly... Everything had an oddly unreal look too it... Not that anything looked fake, it was just... Well, unreal. She stopped when she came to the room that was the source of the light... In front of her was a chair, with a doubled over figure tied too it. Circling the chair was another figure. She couldn't make out the features of either, since the harsh light made their faces hard to see, but both appeared to be male... Neither seemed to know that she was there, even though she was standing in plain sight.

"I'm telling you, I don't know where it is!" the one tied to the chair said, his voice strained from pain. Lara recognized the voice, and his name escaped her lips before she could stop herself.

"Kurtis!" It came out as a loud whisper, and for a split second, she thought he looked right at her, and knew she was there... But then he was back to bowing his head, as his captor continued to circle him, as though he and Kurtis were the only two people in the room.

She expected a male voice to answer, instead, she heard her own, "Well, then Mr. Trent, perhaps Miss Croft will be a little more willing to answer my questions..."

"Karel?" Lara whispered to herself... If she hadn't known this was a dream before, she would have then... Karel was dead. Deader than dead. The Sleeper had not only killed him but turned him into a million tiny chunks as well.

She could now make out both Kurtis' face, and his captor's, which was currently her own. At the mention of her, she saw Kurtis' eyes go from determined, and stubborn, to fearful, but it was only for a moment, "I doubt it. The woman is a pain in the ass." He was back to being sarcastic...

Karel-Lara laughed, "Perhaps... But I think I know how to get you to answer a few questions... Unless you want to see this-" the nephilim rearranged his "Lara features" until a bruised, bloodied, and too all appearances, near-dead Lara was looking Kurtis straight in the eyes... "You don't want to see this next time you see miss Croft, now do you?"

Kurtis hesitated a moment, not meeting the nephilim's gaze, before finally taking in a sharp breath, and replying with, "I honestly don't give a shit... She helped me get what I wanted, then got me out of the Strahov, that was all I wanted from her."

Even knowing that this was a dream and hence, her own mind creating it, his words hurt Lara, and she hated it... But they didn't seem to phase the "not-her"

Karel-Lara smirked, "I don't like being lied to, Mr. Trent..." the creature raised a hand to strike. What happened next, Lara never saw.

----------------

Her dream had troubled her, but Lara was determined not to think about it. After all. She knew Karel was dead, and hence incapable of holding Kurtis hostage. Besides, even if had been possible, how would she have seen it? It made no sense what-so-ever. She didn't even bother to mention it to her house mates, at dinner, since they would either fret about it, or start up a long debate about possible reasons about why she was dreaming of the American demon hunter in the first place, and that was something that she didn't need, to make her evening any worse...

_No more naps,_ she thought, halfway through a simply delicious slice of cake, _sleeping in the middle of the afternoon always seems to equal weird, and troubling dreams that I don't need to waste my time on._

"Are you alright Lara?" Winston asked, as he passed her on her way up to her room, "You seemed distracted all afternoon..."

"I'm fine, Winston," Lara replied, in no mood to explain her troubles. "Really," she added when he raised an eyebrow at her in a way that reminded her of herself...

While he seemed to be far from convinced, Winston asked no more questions... He knew when Lara was determined not to let people in.

---------------

I know this is short... But the chapters will get progressively longer as the story continues... This was more a prologue than anything else


	2. The Adventure Begins

Since it's my general thing to post two chapters when I first post a story, here is chapter two...

The next one will be... well, I hope next friday (I'll try to update once a week) But since I am in the process of moving, I may get delayed... But since I've got 5 chapters written in advance, well, I could just upload them early, then borrow someone else's computer...

And any greek mythology nuts... I am aware that I am likely going to totally butcher one or two myths, but, in order for this to work, it needed to be done...

Anyway, Chapter three next friday, I hope... Enjoy... And remember, review._  
_

_  
Chapter Two_

_The Adventure Begins_

"Lara!" Alister's voice echoed through the gym, as Lara did her best to ignore him. This was a particularly tricky jump, and she did not need her resident nerd distracting her. She made her jump, just as he called to her again. Thankfully, despite this, she landed safely.

"Lara!"

Lara sighed, as she dropped to the floor, "What, Alister?"

"Feeling better I see," came the reply, as Alister made his way into the room. Lara nodded, and repeated her question. To answer it, Alister waved a thick folder in front of her. "This, I thought you might enjoy it as a first job, after your little vacation."

Lady Croft took the folder, and began to flip through it... After a few pages, she looked up at Alister, and at Zip, whom had appeared behind his friend, at some point when she'd been reading. "Really guys... The Fates?" Lara was not one to believe in fate, and destiny... She had never liked that idea that she had no control over her own life, and Lara Croft was a woman who wanted to be in control at all times. _So forgive me if I'm a little reluctant to believe in three old hags who decide how I live and when I die_, she thought, waiting for Zip and Alister's explanation.

"For the love of-... Lara," said Zip, "You've seen Egyptian gods, mutants, angels, undead things, an evil alchemist, a dragon, and according to you, an american with super-powers, and you have trouble believing in the Fates?" he looked at Alister, "Can you believe her?"

Alister only shrugged, and added, "If you'll bother to look, there's even practically a map to the quite literal 'House of Fate'... Give or take a few riddles, that I could have cracked in no time. It was-"

Lara cut him off as she continued to read, aloud, "a temple in which the Fates, Clotho, the Spinner, Lachesis, the Measurer, and Atropos, the Cutter, were said to have resided... It was lost when Eris, Goddess of Discord caused an earthquake that buried it beneath the very mountain on which it sat, long after the Fates themselves had vanished... A more recent earthquake-"

This time it was Alister's turn to interrupt, "uncovered the ruins of an old temple that most currently think to be nothing more than a temple of worship... But if you do a little digging, you'll find that it is, in fact, the house of Fate, where the shears of Atropos are said to rest... And possibly Clotho's spindle..."

"Plus the chance to 'tempt fate'," Zip grinned.

Well... To get ahold of the shears... the very tool that supposedly ended every life... Now wouldn't that be one big "Fuck you" to destiny? She was liking this more and more... "Alright, so I'm interested... What're the odds that you're the only ones who've turned this in to their boss?"

"Ummm, Slim to none," said Zip, "A find like this? You'll be hard pressed to get there before the competition. I hear Alex is already trying to find the exact location..."

"Alex West... He won't get far. He does it for the money. Always a bad thing," Lara sighed. "Right, well, Zip, Alister, make the preparations, please, and let me know if you can find a more exact location. Oh and, Zip, don't bother packing the climbing gear."

-------------------

The air was thick with the stench of blood and scorched flesh this time, but it was still the same room. Kurtis was still doubled over in the chair, and Karel was still circling him. Kurtis looked as though he'd undergone weeks of torture. He was thin, his shirt gone, and his chest covered in wounds... And Karel was only adding to them now... He tipped a little vial he had in his hand, until its contents tipped out, and droplets ran down his shoulders and back... If Lara had thought he looked pitiful lying in a hospital bed, it was nothing compared to hearing him scream as the acid burned away his flesh.

"Kurtis!" Lara gasped... Again she thought she saw him look in her direction when she spoke...

Karel once again morphed into Lara herself... "So, Kurtis... Ready to tell me just what it is you know, yet?"

Kurtis glared up at Karel-Lara, and aimed quite well as he spat in the nephilim's face, "I've told you all I'm going to, you bastard. I. Do. Not. Know. Where. It. Is... Was that slow enough for you, you moron?"

Karel-Lara grinned evilly, "I was almost hoping you'd say that... I'll admit, hearing my enemy scream so pitifully is dreadfully satisfying..." To hear those words in her own voice made Lara shudder... She grimaced, and looked away, as the not-her emptied the contents of the bottle on Kurtis' shoulders.

"Come on, Kurtis," said Karel, not dropping his Lara disguise, "Tell me where the temple is. Tell me where, and I'll grant you a quick death, and I'll promise not to take too long with your little girlfriend, as well."

"No... And you won't touch Lara..."

"Very well..." he was back to being the human Karel that Lara had first seen in the Strahov... "Mercer! More of that lovely acid... Maybe a bit more will loosen his tongue... If not... find out where Lady Croft is..."

----------------

Lara yanked herself out of the dream, to find herself staring up at the chirugai, floating above her head, the normal orange glow faltering a bit.

"Bugger off," she said to it, "It's only a dream... I'm no psychic." When the disk didn't move, she reached up, and grabbed it. In her grip, the glow got stronger, and the weapon _hummed_. She could feel its power... It wasn't only Kurtis that gave this thing its ability to fly, but its own ingrained magic... "What do you want from me?" She wasn't sure if she was talking to the weapon, or to its master... "What?"

As she got up from bed, to place the chirugai on her desk, she almost thought she heard a voice whisper in her ear; "Your help."

-----------------

Clothes were taken out of the bag, as quickly as they were being tossed in. Lara, tired from a lack of sleep caused by her nightmare, wasn't bothering to fold anything, or put it neatly into her bag. Winston was pulling things out, folding them, and replacing them in a suitable fashion. This routine continued, until Lara finally decided she had enough, and, after shooing Winston away, had zipped up the bag. Slinging it over her shoulder, she headed downstairs, where Zip and Alister were cleaning up a minor mess that had been created in the living room, when the chirugai had managed to follow her out of her room earlier.

She couldn't suppress the grin that spread across her face at the sight before her.

They had the stereo going, and the song "Footloose" was playing... And Zip and Alister were actually _dancing._She stood back for a moment, and just watched, barely able to keep from laughing as Zip did something akin to the moonwalk.

"I thought you were cleaning?" Winston's voice made the "dancers" nearly jump out of their skins. Neither said anything. They merely shut off the music, and went back to straightening things up, leaving Lara shaking her head at their silliness.

"Well boys, did you get my gear packed?"

"All but the climbing stuff," Zip replied, giving her a thumbs up.

"Good. I'll talk to you when I reach my hotel in Greece, don't kill each other till then."

Both put on mock innocent looks, as she strode past them, towards the main hall. Winston was driving her to the airport, and her flight left in half an hour. She didn't normally like flying commercially, and this was no exception, but she had been unable to get through to most of her contacts who could have offered her a lift... The ones she had been able to contact couldn't have dropped their current business fast enough for her to beat the competition to the temple. Funny. Her first job in a month, and she couldn't get a bit of help in getting to her destination...

-------------------

The flight was, for the most part anyway, was peaceful. Only one incident occurred; she dozed off, only for a few moments, but it was enough to bring her nightmares back with a vengeance. She found herself being shaken awake by a stick-thin blonde flight attendant.

"Ma'am, please, you're disturbing the other passengers..." said the woman, as Lara blinked at her. At the tomb raider's look of confusion, she added, "You fell asleep miss, and you were talking... you got.. rather loud... " With that, she hurried off, as if eager to get away from Lara...

Not that Lara could blame her... if she'd been saying the things she'd said in her dreams, aloud, she'd have been scared of herself as well... But her mind wasn't on the fact she'd been talking in her sleep, something she hadn't know she did in the first place, instead, she focused on what was causing the dreams... It was the third, and by far the worst of the three. Her "dream-Kurtis" wasn't going to last much longer... And she was finding that she actually cared.

_Get a grip, Lara. They're dreams. Trent's probably off demon hunting, or whatever it is a Lux Veritatis with no more Nephilim to kill does..._ Despite telling herself this, she remained troubled...

------------------

Lara unwrapped the towel she'd had around her long auburn hair, and draped it across the sink, letting her still-damp hair cascade down her back. It was longer than ever now, and she had no intentions of cutting it. _Time to call the children,_ she thought, heading into the bedroom of her hotel room, _Make sure they're getting along... _Zip and Alister in close, unsupervised, proximity generally equaled bad. How the two could possibly be friends, Lara really had no idea.

When no one answered the phone after about six rings, Lara was beginning to wonder if they hadn't blown the mansion, or themselves, up. Finally, someone picked up, but instead of either Zip, or Alister's voice, she heard both, and the reason for the delayed answer became apparent.

"Zip, give those back!"

"Damn, dude! Never knew your eyes were _this_ bad..."

"Stop playing with them, and give them back! I can't see!"

"Then how do you know I'm playing with them?"

Lara cleared her throat loudly, hoping whoever had picked up the phone would remember they were holding it. Apparently it had been Alister, "Oh! Sorry Lara..." she heard an annoyed mutter followed by an "ow!" from Zip, then the distinct sound of Alister replacing, and adjusting his glasses, "Minor eyesight issues... So, how's Greece?"

For a moment, the woman considered asking what he'd done to Zip, but thought better of it, "Cold," she said, "And white. At least I hadn't forgotten about the weather in the mountains this time of year... "

"Indeed... Any idea on how you're getting up to the temple, or do you intend to walk up the mountain?"

"No, I've got a few friends who live here in the city... I've already called, and I've got a ride up... Getting back down will be the problem."

"You'll figure something out."

"I always do."

------------------

The drive up the mountain was slow... Painfully slow, to be accurate. At least Zip, and Alister were able to entertain her. Jonathan, the friend who'd offered her a ride, wasn't much for speaking on even the best of days... Several thousand feet up in the air in below zero temperatures made him positively mute. Not that the weather did much for Lara's own conversational skills. But things could have been worse... It _could_ have still been snowing.

They were a little more than halfway to the temple when the problems began...

"Well can you fix it?" Lara was asking Jonathan, rubbing her hands to warm them. Their vehicle had decided right then would be a good time to break down from the cold...

Jonathan shrugged, "Not well enough that it would make it the rest of the way up... "

"Shit."

"I'm sorry, Lara."

"Don't be, Jonathan. You get back to the city. I'll find a way up on my own."

"Are you sure about that, Lara?" that was Alister, "I'm in no mood to watch you risk life and limb this early in the morning."

"Go else where till I reach the ruins then," was Lara's reply, as she waved goodbye to Jonathan, and started her trek up the mountain, "But I can't promise you that they'll be any safer."

With Alister and Zip bickering, and adding occasional commentary, in her ear, Lara found it amazingly easy to keep her mind off things like the fact that her fingers were going numb...she kept dreaming about someone she'd known for only a month... Just little mundane things. There were times when she wished that they could be quiet, though, like right then, when she was hanging over the edge of a cliff, covered in ice, shimmying hand-over-hand to the other side, where a not-so-stable looking bit of rock waited for her.

"Lads," she said, readjusting her grip on the slick ice and rock, "Could you please, for the love of God, shut up for a moment?"

She heard no reply, which either meant they hadn't heard her, and one was committing murder, or they had heard her, and had listened. Either way, she had a bit of peace. Taking a deep breath, and counting down from three, Lara launched herself away from the cliff-face, and landed on the rock ledge she'd been aiming for. Unfortunately she had been right about it being not-so-stable, and she heard a loud crack, as she landed. No time to stand there... Feeling her ledge breaking off a bit more with each second, she looked around desperately for a way to escape... And found it. It was risky, and her friends, realizing what she was going to do, spoke frantically in her ear telling her to go back the way she'd come. Nope, not going to happen. Clearly _something_ didn't want her to reach that temple... So, she was going to reach it _ anyway_. Ignoring Zip, and Alister, she backed to the edge of her rock, hearing it crack a bit more with her weight all on one side, then ran, and lept over the dizzying drop that awaited her, if she had miscalculated.

She hadn't. She caught the edge of the next cliff, though just barely. She heard her friends sigh in relief, and then heard Alister shout, "Winston! I figured it out! Lara's _trying_ to commit suicide!"

Zip laughed, but said, "He's got a point though, Lara. Ya scared the shit out of us girl."

"Well just close your eyes when you see me about to do something stupid," Lara replied, vaulting up on to sturdy ground. "Or try having a bit more faith in me... I have been doing this for more than a decade you know."

The rest of the trip was, compared to her little stunt, relatively easy, with only a few accidents, most of which consisted of slipping on patches of ice. When she reached the area where the mountain had supposedly caved in, to reveal the temple, she found a rather unwelcome sight... People... Worse, actually... People with lots of nasty weapons. Pulling her binoculars off her belt, she tried to get an idea of whose men they were. Perhaps they were some of the competition's, and hence, not her problem, since she was sure of the fact that even with a head start, she could beat just about any one of her fellow tomb raiders to the prize. If they were hired mercs, on the other hand, it meant someone with lots of money, and lots of power had taken an interest in the ancient relics owned by Clotho, and Atropos...

She zoomed in on a few of the men... They were all dressed in black, their faces covered, no defining marks on their uniforms, nothing.

"Any idea who it is?" Zip asked.

"None," Lara replied, counting all the men she could see, "Mercs, most likely... Oh, I was so hoping I wouldn't have to kill anyone on this trip... What the-..." She zoomed in a bit more on two of the men, whom had removed their ski masks, and helmets... "What have we here?"

Both men had identical tattoos covering their faces. The markings looked painfully familiar, but Lara couldn't, for the life of her, remember where she'd seen them before... "Alister... Start looking for those symbols, and tell me what you find... Meanwhile... I've got a little bit of exterminating to do... This place has a major rat problem."

It took her a good ten minutes to find a place where she could safely get to the bottom of the caved in area, where the entrance to the temple awaited her, and still, not one of the mercs had noticed her. Well, if they were going to be incredibly stupid, why bother going in guns a'blazing, when she could do this quietly? Carefully, and slowly, to avoid making too much noise in the snow, Lara crept up behind the first merc she spotted, and before he ever even knew someone had their hands on him, she snapped his neck, in one swift motion. _Whoever hired these guys needs to learn how to pick the good mercenaries..._ She managed to get five of the twelve men she'd counted, before one spotted her.

"Mercer!" he shouted, "It's her! There she is!"

_Well, so much for handling this with no guns needed, _ Lara thought with a mental sigh. The name Mercer triggered something in her mind, but she ignored it... She had a fight on her hands. She grabbed a rifle from the body near her, despite having her own pistols... She wanted something with a little more kick this time. She shot the one who'd started shouting, and hit him, directly between the eyes. Zip cheered, and said something about a "nice shot" in her ear.

"I can't watch this," she heard Alister say, sounding a bit green, as she shot three more of her attackers, one a close range, something that resulted in brain matter, and bits of skull to go flying.

"You always say that," said Zip, "Yet you keep looking anyway."

Alister muttered something about morbid curiosity, but Lara wasn't paying attention. She was concentrating on the three remaining men, who were hiding somewhere near by... She could hear their feet crunching in the snow. She ducked down, and peered under the vehicles that formed a half-circle around the entrance of the temple, and smirked... Hiding behind their jeeps... _Oh, very brilliant, lads. Very brilliant indeed..._ She took aim, and fired, hitting all three in the legs and ankles, sending them crashing into the snow-covered ground, only to be shot again. _Well, that wasn't so hard._ Lara thought, brushing snow off the knees of her pants, and looking around, counting the bodies, to make sure she'd gotten all twelve.

"You should have kept one for questioning," Zip muttered in her ear.

"Oh, nonsense, Zip... They were obviously waiting for me, which more than likely means whoever they're working for is inside, so I'll find out why I was on the 'shoot first ask questions later' list, soon enough."

She got no reply, as she headed for the ornately carved arched entrance of the temple. _Beautiful... Simply beautiful_. Once inside, she noticed the footprints in the snow... About four sets. She followed them, until she came to a dead end... Yet there was no backtracking... The footprints seemed to lead right into the wall, on which had been carved the face of a woman. Even from just the rough stone carving, Lara could tell that whoever it was, she had been beautiful. It was likely one of the fates... or possibly meant to represent all three, since she'd heard that they all looked the same... save for a few minor differences. _It's not a wall,_ she realized, _ it's a door... Whoever's here went through, and the door shut behind them..._ That meant she'd have to take the other path she'd seen, near the entrance, since there didn't seem to be any way to open the door before her...

Why was she getting the feeling that path number two was the one that held traps of spikey death galore? Most likely because it was... She could already hear the grinding of ancient gears as the traps continued to work, even after centuries of being buried beneath a mountain. As she used her grappling hook to swing over a caved in area of the floor, all thoughts of the name Mercer were drained from her mind, and she put all her concentration into looking out for traps, and not ending up dead.

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yes, I am going to be using variations of Zip and Alister's commentary from Legend, because it amuses me...


	3. House of Fate

Right... Since my patience is rather low... I've switched to updating on thursday... Why? I don't know -(he's on third, and I don't give a darn!)- Anyway... Ya'll may have noticed that I changed the rating on this. Stupid site hides all the "M" stuff behind filters, and only way to see it is to set a search for all ratings... And it's not as if anything is going to get TOO bad in this... I generally rate stories as M, simply for the fact that I never know just how gruesome I'll go with details later on. The worst in the 8 chapters I've written so far is a little harsh language, but nothing too horrible

Since apparently the few people who are reading this aren't reviewing (save for the two who already did) PLEASE start reviewing... Kurtis-Clones will be delivered to any who review... Unless you're male, in which case a Lara-clone will be sent :p

Kudos to anyone who actually got the "he's on third" thing up there. Now enough of my inane chatter, on with chapter three!

Chapter Three

The House of Fate

_T__hat was a little too close_, thought Lara, as she narrowly missed being decapitated by an axe she had failed to notice swinging above her head... It had actually managed to slice a few hairs, letting Lara know just how close "too close" was. She paid no attention to Zip's commentary on how she should be more careful. She was already aware of this, but something was making her want to rush. Something in the back of her mind was nagging at her to pick up the pace. Frankly, it was quite annoying, since rushing could equal death, as the many, many skeletons littering the floor were proof of. _One wrong move, and I'll end up like all these guys. Dead as a doornail, with no one to know what happened to me... Well, Zip and Alister would know, but I doubt they could get anyone to come in after me. _

She had reached what appeared to be a trap-free hallway, for once, but something felt wrong. There were bones scattered all through the hall, as if someone had been throwing them... There had to be a reason for that. Deciding it might be best to see what happened, if anything moved down the hall, she grabbed a near by skull, and tossed it. It's increasing speed told her that the hallway sloped downwards, also not good. Even worse, at the halfway mark, blades shot from the walls, and floor. The skull was small enough that it was able to keep rolling.

Lara took note of where the trigger for the blades was. That one small section seemed to be the only trap there, and that was easy enough to get past. It was the slope that worried her. She looked around, and noticed that the large slab of stone in front of her was raised a bit, that generally meant a trigger. And it was big enough she wouldn't be able to avoid it, and still get over the blades safely. So now the question was, what did the stone set off?

Lara figured she had a pretty good idea. She looked at the wall behind her, and up. Sure enough, resting in a dug out area between the wall and ceiling, was a large round boulder. She grinned, noticing the rocks that held in in place were crumbling. This was a way to kill two birds with one stone, no pun intended. She threw her grappling hook up, smiling in satisfaction as it hooked on to one of the loose rocks. Hoping her idea would work, she yanked hard on the cable, and the stones fell away quite easily, releasing the boulder. As she had hoped, it rolled past her, and down the hall.

She peered around the corner, to see if the second part of her plan worked... It had. The blades were all bent over, rendering them unable to retract into the wall, and hence unable to impale her as she went through. The boulder had gathered enough speed that when it hit the wall at the end of the slope, it crashed through, and kept right on going... Another crash told it had either stopped, or gone through another wall.

"You've got to wonder why the boulder was still there, and the wall still intact, as well as the swords, if so many people have died doing this..." Alister wondered aloud.

"Well, from the lack of whole skeletons down there," said Zip, I'm guessing the few people who made it down there, managed to avoid the trigger for the boulder, and either missed the fact that there were swords down there, or fell victim to them when they couldn't get enough momentum to jump over...Or they turned around after that, and died on their way out..."

Lara didn't know, or care, why so many boulder and spike traps that she came across always seemed to have claimed victims before... yet there always seemed to be another boulder waiting for HER, and another crumbling floor. Perhaps there was some divine force that reset all death-traps in ancient ruins. But who was she to argue? It made life a little more interesting. Smiling at the debate about why the traps were always ready for her, going on in her ear, Lara made her way down the hall, and through the hole the boulder had created.

The chamber it led to was, for the most part, very very dark, save for a few patches of sunlight, drifting through holes in the ceiling. The moment she stepped into the chamber, however, the sounds of a fire starting made her jump, in surprise... Drawing her guns, just as a precaution, she watched as braziers spaced evenly around the walls lit up, with, oddly enough, gold flames. With the entire chamber illuminated, Lara took a look around.

It was of medium size. Not large enough to be any sort of ritualistic chamber, and not near fancy enough to be a vault of any kind, and there was nothing about it that screamed "trap!", so more than likely, she wasn't going to find what she was looking for in here. But it was still rather pretty. The columns that held up the ceiling looked as though they must have taken years to carve, many years. One of two of them had toppled over, though most were only cracked. There was a raised area in the middle of the chamber, where remains of old fabric sat, giving the impression that this had once been a bedchamber.

Animal skeletons littered the floor. On one wall were carvings, most depicting a woman, spinning long threads, then passing them to a waiting hand, though it appeared as though that was all it was ever meant to show, for the wall ended at the wrist of the mystery person's hand.

"This was Clotho's chamber wasn't it?" she asked, not caring which of her friends answered. "She was the Spinner of Threads, wasn't she?"

"Yes," said Alister, "that means that the person she's passing the threads on to would be Lachesis... When you find the rest of that carving, at least you'll know where you are."

Lara hadn't been paying attention. She was making her way to the large archway that appeared to be the exit. It was blocked off with faded. rotted, moth-eaten, barely-there drapes. They looked as though they might crumble into dust the moment she touched them. Moving through them, Lara found herself in yet another hallway, this one lit from the sunlight coming through the missing ceiling. To all appearances, this one was trap-free.

The next chamber she came lit up with silver flames, when she entered, and looked almost identical to Clotho's, save for the carving on the wall, which showed Lachesis accepting the spun threads from her sister, then measuring, and cutting them to her satisfaction, then dropping them into a pool, that looked to be full of the threads. The second half of the pool was missing from this carving...

The third was lit with black flames, and looked identical to the previous two, save for, again, the carving on the wall. This one showed Atropos pulling threads from the pool, and reaching for her shears. Then cutting the thread she held, as a spirit left a human's body.

No, no, Lara didn't like the Fates at all, and she'd be damned if she had no control over her own destiny... She left Atropos' chamber as quickly as she could, eager to get away from the depictions of the very thing she hated. Not being in control. She stopped, a ways away from the Fates' chambers, in front of a large set of wooden doors, at least ten feet tall. There were words carved into them, and though they were written in ancient Greek, Lara had no trouble reading them. She did so aloud, for Zip's benefit, since she knew Alister wouldn't.

"_'Enter not, the chamber of Fate or thy destiny will be unraveled, and it shall be as though thou were never born'_"

"Can't they just say 'Caution! Do not enter!'?" Zip muttered, "They gotta go all fancy on ya."

"They were the Gods, Zip," Lara chuckled, "They had to be fancy."

"Tell me you're not going in there, Lara," Alister pleaded.

Smirking, as she noticed something on the right hand side of the door, "No, Alister I'm not-"

"Oh thank God-"

"Until I find the key..." She looked pointedly at the indentations near the door, and she heard Alister groan.

"When Zip said you'd get the chance to tempt fate on this little trip, I don't think he actually meant to tempt it into destroying you..."

Lara gave him no reply, instead, she continued down the hall, growing increasingly suspicious about the lack of things swinging at her head, or trying to impale her. This was far too easy. If the other way had been trap free, she KNEW it was too easy. Something was wrong. Either the Fates had enough confidence that no one would dare enter, hence the lack of traps, or the only thing of real importance here was the Chamber of Fate, which seemed to have its own defense mechanism...

She hoped it was the former. She would have hated to've made this trip for nothing. Though even if there was nothing here, it might have been worth it, if she could find out who it was that had wanted her dead if she showed up, since they had clearly been expecting her.

She made her way through hall after all, chamber after chamber, wondering if this place ever ended, or if she was going in circles, when she noticed a staircase in the middle of the room she currently occupied. It led down, and looked as though it could crumble apart at any second. But since when had Lara cared about that? She carefully made her way down the stairs, making sure to go slow, so as not to add to the crumbling and cracking that was already taking place. Only about twenty steps down, however, that section of stairs gave out, and dropped from beneath her. Lara managed to jump, and land on a sturdier section of the stairs, but as she landed, those too began to crumble.

"Oh, bloody hell!" she yelled, as she ran, to get ahead of the destruction.

There was a large gap ahead of her. Another jump, and another grab, and she was on the next section of stairs. But her previous process had to be repeated with this one, and the one after that, and the next... Finally, when she was sure she had to be nearing the bottom, the steps stopped collapsing under her feet. Breathing hard, and swearing fluently, Lara leaned against the wall, to catch her breath. _Is this punishment for wondering what there weren't that many deathtraps?_ she asked silently, _ Because I swear I won't do it again._

"Well, that was fun..." Zip said, after several minutes of total silence, "You alright Lara?"

"Fine," Lara assured him, "Just fine... And wondering how I'm going to get back up... But for now I need to concentrate on getting down alive. "

The rest of the trip down was uneventful, and rather boring, since it seemed to take an eternity. By the time she saw light, signaling the end of the stairs, she needed a breather again. Stopping before she reached the very bottom, she took her break, and got on the move again.

The stairs had brought her to a gigantic, torch-lit chamber... Now _this_ looked like what she might find ancient and magical items in. The area she stood on went around the entire room, but it was only a small walkway that looked down on the main part of the chamber. It almost looked like a stadium of sorts, for the middle was level, but the outer areas of it were raised in wide steps, that circled the flat area in the center. In said center was a stone pedestal, on which sat a small, simple silver box.

But it was none of these things that held Lara's attention. It was the people in the chamber below her. There were four of them, that much she could tell, but three were hidden in the shadows. Right then she didn't care about them, however, as she crept closer to the edge of the walkway for a better look. The one that held her attention was the fourth, who was making his way to the pedestal. Greying blonde hair, cold, soulless ice-blue eyes, plain, and unattractive face, a walk that suggested he was superior to all other living things...

"Karel!" she whispered to herself... How had he survived? What was he doing here? What did he need with the shears and the spindle? Then the name she'd heard from the mercs clicked... Mercer. She'd heard that name in her nightmares. It was all coming together now. Why Kurtis had vanished, why he'd told her to get out of Prague... He'd seen Karel, and tried to run, himself. She had gotten away, Kurtis hadn't. This temple was what Karel had been wanting Kurtis to tell him about... Now that he knew... The icy hand of dread gripped at her heart. Now that Karel had what he wanted, what had he done with Kurtis? The demon hunter had been so near death in her last nightmare...

Something tugging on her backpack brought her to reality once more. Something was trying to get out of the pack. The chirugai was active again. But did that mean that Kurtis was alive, or that it was somehow reacting to her, or perhaps even the Nephilim below. The third seemed the most likely. No matter what, she couldn't let it get out, and alert Karel to her presence. If the shears were in that box, and the part about them cutting the threads of life were true, then he could easily kill her with one simple snip of the blades, and while Lara was reckless, she wasn't stupid. She knew when it was best to just wait, and live to fight another day.

"Lara?" said Alister, "Lara are you alright? Who is that?"

"I think it's that Carol guy..." said Zip.

"Karel," Lara corrected him in a whisper, watching the aforementioned nephilim reach for the silver box.

He took it from it's resting place, and started to open it. Lara held her breath, silently praying that she had been right earlier about this place holding nothing of real value... And was rewarded with a shout of anger from Karel.

"They're not here!" He shouted, turning to the three figures standing in the shadows. Lara saw one of them twitch a bit. "Where are they!" he was screaming now, his face red with fury, the green flames Lara had become well acquainted with in Prague, flared up around his hands. The figure she'd seen twitch shook his head, and shrugged. Karel moved forward into the shadows, and struck the figure. Lara saw him fall, as the other two backed away swiftly. The fallen one didn't get back up.

Karel turned and strode quickly towards the exit. "We're leaving," he said, still furious, "We'll just have to look elsewhere."

"S-sir!" one of the two standing men called, "What about him?" he pointed to the still form lying on the ground.

"Leave him. The mortal's usefulness has ended. Let him freeze, if he's not dead already." With that, he, and his black-clad helpers left the chamber, leaving only Lara, and the fallen man. Waiting a moment to make sure that Karel wasn't going to change his mind, and come back for the man, Lara gave her backpack a good shake, willing the bladed disk inside to stop moving, before it either ripped open her bag, or stabbed her in the back. Eyeing the floor below, Lara tried to decide if it looked like a short enough drop that she wouldn't break something when she landed, if she jumped off. Coming to the conclusion that at worst, she might feel like she'd just become a few inches shorter upon landing, Lara dropped over the side of the walkway, then let go, landing with a grunt.

"Lara, are you sure you should be down there?" Alister asked, "What if what-his-face comes back?"

"Then I'll deal with him," Lara replied, heading for the still form on the other side of the chamber. She ignored the discarded box.

"You barely survived your last meeting with him," Zip warned, "And that was because you destroyed another creature... _with_ a magical glove... I dunno about you guys, but I see a serious lack of weird critters and alchemist's gloves..."

"Zip is right Lara," Alister agreed, "It might be best if you just left..."

"I can't leave whoever it is he's left to die," Lara offered as a reason for not doing exactly what they, and her brain, were telling her to do. She was determined not to get her hopes up, but still, she was sure of who Karel had left.

"It's prob'ly one of his own men," said Zip, "One of his own that pissed him off a time too many..."

Ah, yes. She'd forgotten that she hadn't informed them about her nightmares. They didn't know whom Karel had captured and tortured to get the location of this place... Who he seemed confident would die. "It's not," she replied, "It's... Someone else..." She hadn't realized until then, that she had stopped, though part of her was urging her feet to move in her current direction, another was saying "Screw that, and let's get out of here!". So, unsure of which side to follow, she'd frozen in place.

"Lara? Lara are you alright?"Alister sounded worried... How long had she been standing there, unable to move?

She blinked a few times, "I'm... Fine, Alister, really. "

With that, she was able to move forward again. Her breathing was shaky. From the cold, or from fear of what she was going to see when she reached the unmoving body that lay only a few yards away? Surely it couldn't be the second... When ever before had she let herself care that much? She reached the body. It was a man, as she ad expected... Dark hair, thin, pale, but she couldn't see his face. Half-hoping that Zip had been right, and the man was nothing more than a merc that she would have killed anyway, and half-hoping that she was right, and it was who she thought it was, Lara grabbed his shoulder, and rolled him over.

The pale, bruised, dead-looking face of Kurtis Trent was the sight that greeted her eyes. Lara grimaced, seeing the damage that had been done to him. His face was a patchwork of bruises, his arms were covered in acid burns, and cuts -(this she could see, since he had no coat, only a t-shirt... The bastards had wanted him to freeze)-... And he wasn't breathing... The last was realized with a sudden look of horror, as Zip, and Alister both let out a continuous stream of questions that fell on deaf ears.

"Kurtis?" Lara practically squeaked. No reply. Not so much as a twitch... "Kurtis..."

"Your help." The voice she'd heard back in her home had said...She hadn't given it. Hadn't figured out the message he was trying to get through to her... Not in time anyway. In a last-ditch effort to revive him, she took a deep breath, opened his mouth, pressed her own against it, exhaled, and proceeded with CPR.

"Come on, you bastard, breathe!" Lara hissed, as she repeated the mouth-to-mouth, to no avail, "Fucking breathe!"

"Lara?" said Zip, quietly, after her third attempt.

"What?" Lara spat, not angry at him, but with herself, as she continued to press down on Kurtis chest, "Breathe, Kurtis, please... Breathe."

"Lara, stop," Zip replied, "He's dead."

"Shut up," the woman replied, not willing to give up... not yet, "He _can't_ die... He's to God damn cocky to die!"

The next ones to tell her to stop were Alister, and surprisingly, Winston. She payed them no mind... Until finally her own brain forced her to stop her attempts. As she drew her mouth away from his for the last time, she sank back, legs curled beneath her. _Should have listened to those dreams, _she thought to herself, with a glare at her discarded backpack, where the chiruagai now lay still.

"Lara?"

"What, Zip?" she asked, wondering briefly why Zip didn't sound like Zip, and why it didn't sound like his voice had come from her headset. "I said what, Zip." She repeated, when she got no answer.

"Who the hell is Zip?" the same not-Zip voice repeated, weakly, "And what in the hell are you doing here? Where's Karel?"

Lara looked up, to see what she'd previously thought to be the corpse of Kurtis Trent sitting up, and looking at her, head cocked to the side, in confusion, blue eyes alight with curiosity... and... happiness?

"K...Kurtis?" was the only thing that Lara's dumbfounded, immensely relieved brain could force her to say. "You were dead..."

"Well I'm not... Or I'm a ghost, one of the two," Kurtis replied. He reached out, and brushed her cheek with his hand, "Solid... Not a ghost... I suppose I could be a really smart zom-"

He was cut off when Lara suddenly slapped him. "You idiot," she said calmly, despite having the sudden urge to embrace him, "You scared the shit out of me! I thought you were dead."

"If that's the greeting I'm going to get for coming back from death, I think I was better off dead," Kurtis grumbled, rubbing his bruised, and now red cheek.

"Bloody prat," was all Lara said in response. Her lack of words was caused by a sudden onslaught of thoughts, all running along the course of; 'why do I even care that much?' 'It doesn't make any sense... I really barely know him...' 'it's not like I haven't lost people closer to me, and reacted better than that...' That last was certainly true... After losing a group of her friends to some supernatural force at a dig site in Peru, many years before, she had turned herself into quite the cold-hearted bitch, when it came to people... It had only gotten worse after the events in Egypt. Zip, Alister, and Winston were really the only people she let in. Hell, she hadn't even reacted as badly to Von Croy's murder, as she had when she'd thought Kurtis was dead... And she'd known the man nearly all her life. Granted, she had been running from the police, and hadn't really had time for getting emotional... There was also the little fact of him having left her to die.

"You didn't answer me," Kurtis interrupted her thoughts, "Where's Karel?"

Wondering briefly why Zip and Alister were so quiet, Lara replied, "After he hit you, he left..." That reminded her... The box, she hadn't seen what _was_ in it, if not the items she was after. Getting up, and heading for it, she suddenly allowed herself a smile... She hadn't been too late after all.

She picked up the box that Karel had so angrily discarded, and opened it. There was a crumbling bit of parchment inside, on an ancient cushion. The ink was faded, but Lara could still make out the words. She read it aloud in the hopes that it would bring Zip and Alister out of whatever trance they had gone into that had caused them to become so quiet, "_'Thou who sought the tools of Fate, thy thread shall unravel, and crumble like the walls around thee'_"

"There they go with the cryptic again..." said Zip, making Lara jump, "All they had to say was 'hey, touch this box and die'"

Lara let the box fall to the stone floor with a clatter. Why did she get the feeling that reading the parchment aloud had been a bad idea? "Kurtis... I hope you can move, fast..."

"Why?" Kurtis asked, getting to his feet with a groan, and swaying a bit, suggesting that as a matter of fact, he couldn't.

Zip and Alister parroted his question.

"Because," _three, two, one,_ she counted in her head, before she finished her sentence... Sure enough when she hit three, there came the sound of rock cracking, as a bit of the ceiling fell to the floor, and shattered. "of that. This chamber was designed to collapse if that warning was read... I guess Karel didn't even bother to look at it. Come on."

She grabbed her backpack, and Kurtis' hand, and dashed for the exit opposite the one Karel had taken, as another bit of ceiling landed right where the pair had been standing... She gave her companion, wounded though he was, no choice but to keep up. A few extra aches and pains was better than being flattened beneath a crumbling chamber... Though it wasn't the rocks she was worried about. It was the bit about her life-thread unraveling. Did it mean literally, or that she would just die, plain and simple when the chamber collapsed? She seriously hoped it was the latter. Though she had no intentions of dying that way either.

The exit she'd selected lead her and Kurtis through a rather long, and low-ceilinged tunnel... There was a tiny dot of light at the end. _ The light at the end of the tunnel... Ironic_. Ironic as it may have been, that light meant a way out, and by the gods, she was going to take it... And they were going to get out...

...Or maybe not...

The tunnel ahead was starting to cave in as well...

And the chances that both she and Kurtis could beat the rocks were slim...

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Yes, I am aware that cliffies are evil, and rotten, and I hate them as much as the next person, but they are fun to do :p


	4. Catching Up

Not much in the way of plot for this one...

Also, I ask that you guys gimme 4 more reviews by next thursday. Please? Virtual cookies to all if this is up to 8 reviews by next thursday. LOTS of virtual cookies if it gets to more than that...

Chapter Four

Catching Up

_I__ am NOT dying here!_ Lara thought angrily, to whatever divine force that may have been listening,_ Do you hear me? I'm getting out and I am getting Kurtis out too!_ Tightening her grip on Kurtis' hand, she used a sudden adrenaline rush to force her legs to move faster than they normally could, dragging her American companion along with her. She kept chanting over and over again in her head that they would make it out.

If it hadn't been for the several feet of snow slowing her down, Lara might have kept on running long after they'd gotten out of the tunnel. And a narrow escape it had been. Not a second after their feet touched the snow, the rocks that had so recently been above their heads dropped, closing off the tunnel in a cloud of dust and dirt. Next to Lara, Kurtis collapsed onto the white ground, too weak to even stand after the amount of over-exertion Lara had just put him through. Granted, he'd been too weak to really stand in the first place.

After a moment, Lara collapsed next to him, laughing like a mad woman.

"Um... Lara," said Alister, voice strained, "I don't think such a close call is very funny."

Kurtis, whom couldn't seem to form words, simply looked at his companion as if she had gone totally off her rocker.

"Lara- one, Fates- zero," Lara said through her laughter, trying to get her reasoning across to them. She had been so scared, there, for a moment, that she was really going to die... "We just beat the Fates on a minor level," she added, still laughing. Kurtis shook his head, and Lara was sure that was what Alister and Zip were doing.

Once she'd regained her composure, Lara sat up, and looked at her surroundings. The tunnel had taken them upwards, apparently, for instead of being several hundred feet below it, they were in the cave-in area where the entrance to the still-standing temple sat... It seemed only the one chamber had been meant to collapse. The vehicles that had been there before were now gone, though the bodies of the men she'd killed remained. Had Karel been so angry that he hadn't stopped to think about who might have killed them? Or that she might have gotten to that chamber before he had, or had he just been so arrogant as to think that the traps could have killed her, and that she would have never made it that far to begin with?

Or there was the third option. He had thought about who was there, and had considered the possibility that she might have what he wanted, and he was waiting for her somewhere near by. But worrying about Karel could wait. She hadn't bothered to properly examine Kurtis before the little mishap. She'd been too confused about her own thoughts and feelings. Before they could get to the town, though, she had to make sure he was even fit to move.

Turning to her companion, she might have thought he was dead- again- if not for the slight movement of his chest as he breathed. Deciding she'd use his only semi-conscious state to her advantage, she leaned over him, running her fingers over every little nick, and cut. Remembering the torture sessions she'd witnessed, she lifted his shirt far enough to examine the damage done to his chest, and stomach. She ran her fingers over the acid burns that trailed from his shoulders all the way down his chest, and abdomen, the various cuts, and bruises that said he'd come off in the worse end of a beating, and the large, badly healed scar that was the proof of his brush with death a little over a month ago...

She heard either Zip, or Alister clear their throat uncomfortably, but she ignored whoever it was. Kurtis' hand suddenly wrapped around her wrist, "You can oogle later, Croft," he said, eyes still closed, "Right now, I'm freezing my ass off, and would like to sleep for a week or so..."

The cold! She'd forgotten- well, for a moment she'd forgotten a lot of things- that he had no coat. She got to her feet, and pulled him with her. She removed her own overly-large bomber jacket, and handed it to him. She at least had a sweater, and a long-sleeved shirt on. All he had was his tattered, thin t-shirt. He seemed a little reluctant to take the jacket from her, but accepted it, after a moment. Surprisingly enough, it fit him. Either he was smaller than he looked, or the jacket was larger than Lara had initially thought.

"I hope you're up for this, Trent," she said, "Because it's a long way down. "

---------------------

Lara could have kissed Jonathan. And were it not for her limbs all being numb, she might have. He stood there, leaning against his jeep, a smirk on his face.

"Have fun, Lara?" he asked, "You must've done something to scare whoever else was up there... They came tearing down the mountain like bats outta hell."

"No time for jokes or explanations, Jonathan," Lara replied through chattering teeth, "I just want to get back to my hotel room, and warm up." ("Which, after what we saw up there at the temple, could have multiple meanings," Zip joked to Alister. Lara would have to remember to hit him for that later.)

"Funny," said Jonathan, eyeing Kurtis, "I seem to remember your pattern was 'go up with a partner, come back down alone', not the other way around."

Lara only shrugged, in no mood to explain why she had company. "You got that piece of junk fixed so it can at least _roll_ into the city?"

Her friend nodded, "Got it running, then figured I should wait for you, in case you needed a ride down. Hop in."

As she, and Kurtis obliged, Jonathan started the vehicle, and turned up the heater, as far as it would go. The heat was pure heaven on their frozen bodies.

---------------------

While he had made it up to that point fairly well, Kurtis' legs had finally decided to give out on him, still several corridors away from Lara's room, leaving Lara to try and keep him up, and still make her way to her room. With an arm around his waist, she realized just how thin he was, since she could feel each and every one of his ribs, and even his spine. She wanted nothing more than to get hold of Karel, and inflict every injury on him, that he had given Kurtis, a hundred times over.

When she reached her room, she let Kurtis fall gently on to the bed. "When was the last time you ate?" she asked him, as she yanked off the jacket she'd given him, followed by his shirt. She had to get him out of his snow-drenched clothes, before he got pneumonia, on top of everything else.

Kurtis, in too much of a daze to know what she was doing, replied with, "I don't know... a week or two ago, once... Before that, another two weeks..."

A month without proper food. No wonder he was weak. Starving, on top of torture, had done him no favors... But then, neither had hiking down a mountain, in temperatures now only about twenty degrees above zero, in three feet of snow. She unbuttoned and unzipped his soaked cargo pants, and struggled to pull them off. The fabric stuck to his skin, as if clinging for dear life. She left the green boxers he wore alone. Those he could remove himself.

He seemed to realize, then, what she'd done, "What the?"

"No questions," Lara said, "under the blankets, now. You're bad enough off as it is, getting sick will do you no good, and you're too weak to fight off even a cold, at the moment." She tossed his wet clothes into a corner. She'd lay them out to dry, later. Right now, the chill from her own wet clothes was starting to get to her.

Grabbing what would serve as pajamas, Lara muttered a "bye" to Zip and Alister, then removed her headset, and put it in her suitcase, then headed into the bathroom to change. A few minutes later, she came out, in baggy pants, and a too-large t-shirt, that reached all the way down to her thighs, and the sleeves, even though it was supposed to be a short-sleeved shirt, the sleeves reached her elbows. It wasn't the most attractive outfit, but it was comfortable. She had another pair of the same type of pants, and a couple more t-shirts that she could lend to Kurtis, later on. First things first... some of his wounds had looked infected, which needed taking care of.

She dug through her backpack, finding her first aid kit. She grabbed the small bottle of disinfectant from it, along with the gauze, and medical tape. The older ones would be fine, just being cleaned, but a few of the newer ones needed to be covered, to be kept clean.

"Up," she ordered, jerking her thumb in an upwards direction, looking at Kurtis, who had surprisingly obeyed her when she'd told him to get under the blankets. With a look of deepest loathing, cast in her direction, Kurtis sat up, and moved to where she could tend his injuries, having seen what she had in her hands.

"This is going to sting," Lara warned him, pouring the disinfectant, which turned out to be simple alcohol, onto a bit of cloth. She pressed the cloth to one of the worse burns, and heard Kurtis hiss a bit. "I told you... So how did Karel get to you?"

"I had a hole in my stomach, and had recently gotten the shit kicked outta me by a mutant bug," was the sarcastic reply, "I couldn't run very far. I saw him, in Prague. He was checking the hospitals, for you... Didn't bother to look for me. But if he'd seen me, he'd've recognized me, so I took off, and left you that little gem of advice that you apparently listened to... He got me the next morning, when I decided to try and catch up to you... Tortured me, to try and get me to tell him where those damn ruins were, since he seemed convinced I knew- fuck, woman! Do you have to press down so hard?-... Anyway, I did know, unfortunately...Part of my old history lessons... Karel's a nasty piece of work. Used one of his little mind tricks to get the location outta me..." He was being purposefully vague on the subject of the mind trick... Lara'd have to get the details from him later, since now he was asking about her endeavors since Prague.

"I went home, and was practically forced into bedrest by Zip, Alister, and Winston... " she replied. Her tale was much shorter than his, "They only just now deemed me well enough to continue with my little hobby. Of all the jobs to give me, it had to be one going after the very same objects as Karel... Not that I'm not glad to have gotten you out." She moved around in front of him, after having finished tending his back.

"So who are Alister, Zip, and Winston?" her companion asked, wincing, as she cleaned a knife-wound on his chest.

"Alister and Zip are friends of mine... They work for me, help me on my little adventures, gather information for me... Winston is my butler, who too often likes to play the over-protective father role." She started to move away, her work done, but Kurtis grabbed her upper arm, and held her in place.

"What did you mean, earlier, when you were thinking something about listening to dreams?" he asked, his blue eyes locking on to her brown ones, holding her gaze.

"How did you-"

"I can read minds... What did you mean?"

"I-... I had a couple of nightmares. I kept seeing you, and what Karel was doing to you... I thought they were just dreams. I didn't know Karel had survived."

He still didn't release her, he just pulled her a bit closer, "You were actually upset, earlier, when you thought I was dead..." he looked away, as if he were talking more to himself, than to her. He looked up, once again catching Lara's gaze with his own.

"People generally are when they lose a friend," Lara offered, as an explanation, trying to keep him from getting into her head, and searching for a proper excuse to pull away from him, other than that they were closer than they had been in the Louvre, and frankly, it was scaring her. Scaring her because she found she didn't _want_ to pull away... Because, as a matter of fact, she wanted to be closer. She hadn't let herself have any sort of relationship, since Terry, and she wasn't quite ready to break her two-year "no men" streak. The less-logical part of her brain seemed to have a different idea though, since she couldn't move.

"You consider me a friend?" Kurtis sounded mildly amused at this, "Why, Croft, I never knew you cared." Despite his joking tone, he was still drawing her closer to him.

Somewhere, in the backs of their minds, both knew this had been coming since Paris... Lara could feel his breath on her lips now, could smell the lingering cigarette smoke on him, as well as the snow, and blood, and underneath it all, the scent that was Kurtis Trent. She could feel him trembling, though whether that was from the cold, or their proximity, she couldn't be sure. Their lips had just barely met, when the phone rang, breaking the spell that had fallen over them.

Reacting as though she had been shocked, Lara sprang up, and off the bed, away from Kurtis, to grab the phone, partially grateful to whoever was calling, and partially hating them. "Hello?"

"Lara, I found something on those symbols," Alister... She didn't know whether she wanted to strangle him for interrupting her "moment" with her companion, with information she'd already figured out, or kiss him.

She settled for simply reciting what she knew he was about say anyway, "They're symbols used by the Nephilim, and their cronies, right?"

"Yes and no," said Alister, and Lara got the distinct impression that he was reading something, as he was talking to her, "It says here," yep, he was reading, "That only the Nephilim are permitted to use those markings, and even then, only the higher-ups... Those two men that you saw were either Nephilim, and really damn powerful ones, too, or they kept their faces hidden from Karel at all times, which doesn't seem likely."

This was not good. One Nephilim was bad enough, but three? Why hadn't they just killed her earlier, when she'd attacked? They could have, easily. After all, Zip had been right when he'd said she'd barely survived her fight with Karel. TWO of the damn creatures, when she wasn't expecting them? She wouldn't have stood a chance. And why had they still been lying in the snow, when she and Kurtis had gotten out of the temple?

"Thank you, Alister... That's... Helpful... Troubling, but helpful..." Without waiting for a reply, she hung up. From Kurtis' expression, she knew she didn't have to repeat what Alister had told her.

-----------------

Kurtis Trent had never met anyone quite like Lara Croft. Just when he thought he had her figured out, she had to go and turn his whole perception of her upside down. Reading her mind didn't help him at all, since there seemed to be two entirely different sides of her, and instead of meshing together, each side fought for dominance. He'd been in her head, earlier, when they'd... Well, could he really call it a kiss? It wasn't much of one. Damn Alister... And her thoughts had been changing more than a chameleon in a skittles truck... One moment, she wanted to ignore the phone, and continue, the next she'd wanted to run far, far away. She'd settled for simply answering the phone.

Thinking about Lara, and her mind, that flip-flopped like a catfish on a tile floor, was starting to give him a headache... Or was that the mind reading he was still doing? He wasn't putting all his concentration into it, any more... Not having had good food in so long, and someone suddenly handing you a large tray full of nice hot, and simply delicious treats could make you lose a bit of concentration... So he was only getting thoughts from Lara, here and there.

_This is bad... Three Nephilim... Possibly more. And I still haven't found those shears. And now I know that Karel is either after them, or Clotho's spindle, I think it'd be a best idea if I found out just where they are..._

He noticed out of the corner of his eye that she was looking at him, _Almost lost him, back there. I don't know what I would have d-... Oh what am I thinking? Get a grip, Croft. Stop acting like a schoolgirl with a crush. There's important work to be done, and it has to be done soon...Kurtis, get the hell out of my head. _

Turning to face her, with a mock innocent look, he shrugged. Lara glared at him, but said nothing. After she felt she had given him a sufficient amount of glaring, she headed for the phone, muttering something about letting her friends know they would be at the mansion sometime tomorrow night.

Later, before Kurtis even got the chance to ask about sleeping arrangements, Lara had practically fallen on the bed next to him, mumbling about the bed being big enough for the both of them, and that she was too tired to argue, so he better not even try. _Who am I to argue if a stunningly beautiful woman wants to sleep with me?_ Kurtis thought, with an amused smirk.

-----------------

Before Lara even opened the front door of her home, she could hear the bickering. She sighed, and shook her head. When Kurtis, whom again was having to lean on her for support, gave her a puzzled look, she just shrugged. "Alister, and Zip..." was all she said.

The moment she opened the door, however, the argument, whatever it was about, ceased.

"Ah!" cried Alister, "And so she returns, after scaring the piss out of us more times in one day than she ever has before!"

"Good evening to you too, Alister," Lara replied, kicking the door shut, since her hands were otherwise occupied. Allowing Kurtis to move to a chair, she looked at Zip, "You going to scold me too?"

"Hell no, that was fun to watch... Except for maybe that last bit..." Lara thought for a moment he was referring to the close escape, but he proved her wrong, "I mean, you, with your hands all over a guy? Not a picture I want to have in my head."

Lara promptly chucked a pillow at his head. "This 'guy' has a name," she said, "Kurtis, meet Alister, and Zip, my supposed help on missions. Alister, Zip, this is Kurtis Trent... He's the one who helped me out in France... "

"I don't seem to recall much helpin' until after a few nasty encounters," Kurtis reminded her.

"Yes, well, I can't help that you're a prick who would not only steal a girl's painting, but would also leave her in an airlock chamber for hours, while a bunch of zombies tried to get in."

"If you hadn't cut the power, they wouldn't have gotten loose in the first place, nor would you have gotten locked in there..." Kurtis retorted, "And the paintings DID need to be destroyed..."

"A fine job you did of that... I seem to recall you losing it minutes after you stole it from me."

"That's the pot callin' the kettle black. You didn't have it long yourself!"

"Because you have the unfair advantage of mental powers... Eckhardt wouldn't have gotten it, if you had let me keep it... "

"Ah, but who was it who traded a painting to save me?"

"Um, excuse me..." Alister cut in, "As much as I enjoy this, er... lovely banter... I think we have more important matters at hand... Like, oh, say, the fact that there are _three_ of those Nephilim things, who seem to be on the look out for some really powerful magical artifacts?"

That was enough to stop the "fun", and sober them all up. Alister was A hundred percent right. They had alot of work ahead of them... And it was likely going to be a long time before that work stopped.

-------------------

Once he had a decent amount of food in him, and some of his strength back, Kurtis was an unnaturally fast healer, another of his odd abilities. Even then, it was a week before he was back to being the Kurtis Lara had first seen in Paris. Or mostly back to the one she'd seen. There was something different about him. His eyes weren't as care-free as they had been. Instead, the care-free spark had been replaced with something darker, more sinister. A side effect from what he'd suffered at Karel's hands.

Before, his hatred of the Nephilim had been something he'd just been taught... Now, Lara was sure it had become a very very personal matter, and quite frankly, she almost felt sorry for Karel, should the Lux Veritatis warrior get his hands on him. Like she had, when she had finally recovered from Prague, Kurtis was using her gym every day, training for hours on end, and while Lara had to admit, she rather liked the view, when he did the course shirtless, it bothered her a bit, seeing the map of scars that, in a way, had been caused by her. If she'd been a little more open-minded about her dreams, she might have been able to stop some of what she'd seen from happening.

Though she'd asked Kurtis about why she'd dreamed what she did, and even about the voice she'd heard, and had thought was him. He'd only shrugged, and informed her that he knew nothing about it. Though he did remark that he'd been trying to call his chirugai, and it had refused. Imagine that. A hunk of metal, actually refusing something. It was listening fine now though, which was evident from the way it followed Kurtis, almost like a puppy.

"Did Alis find anything?" Kurtis' voice pulled Lara from her thoughts, and she realized he had reached the end of her training course. He'd been calling Alister "Alis" from day one, something that had irked the british nerd for a few days, but he had finally stopped complaining, and accepted that Kurtis was going to continue with the nickname, "He was chatterin' on about somethin' last night, but I was too beat to really understand a word of it."

Lara shrugged, "He hasn't said anything to me, today, but then, I haven't gone into the library yet... But if he'd found anything, I'm sure he would have hunted us down. As for not understanding him, you don't have to be tired. I can't make heads nor tails of what he's going on about most the time, either."

Aha! This was a good topic to stay on. A nice mundane topic that would lead to none of the-... So much for that idea. Kurtis had fallen silent, staring at Lara, and she was returning the favor. It seemed, after the little incident in Greece, they were incapable of being in a room alone together for more than a few minutes, before the tension-filled silence began, and what Lara had started to refer to as their little game, resumed. It was a game, because both knew what the other wanted, but neither was going to give in, until the other did, which left them at a bit of a snag. It always ended in a tie. Both would look away at the same time, and leave whatever room they were in, to seek out the company of the other three residents of the house, and act like nothing had happened.

To be perfectly honest, it was driving them both crazy. Lara, however, was too stubborn to give in. Kurtis had to much pride to admit to anything, unless Lara did so first. They were at an impass... Something that would have to be remedied, if they were to work together. As always, just as Lara tore her eyes away from Kurtis, he tore his from her, and without a word, they left the gym, to seek out Alister, and find out if there was any information on where the shears and the spindle might be.

-------------------

"Stop pestering me," Alister whined, as Lara and Kurtis hovered over him, "When I've found something on the dodgey bastards, I'll let you know!"

"Ah, c'mon, Alis, no need to get all moody on us," Kurtis teased, "Besides you were talkin' my damn ear off last night, about somethin' or other..."

"I was merely reciting a history of the Nephilim, and the Lux Veritatis, and wondering if you could confirm it for me, but since you don't seem to have payed attention, it was a wasted effort."

"Whoo hoo!" A shout came from just outside the door, and Zip burst into the library. The three occupants raised their eyebrows at him, as he grinned, "I just got a lead on where you might find a bit of info on Karel, and maybe find out what he knows, if anything..."

"I'm all ears," said Lara... Even if this turned out to be a pointless trip, whatever it was had to be better than sitting around the house, waiting for Alister to find something. Zip's only reply was to hand her a bit of paper that he'd printed out.

"Of course, it could be a trap, but that's part of the fun, isn't it?"

Reading what he'd handed her, Lara's lips curved into a smile, "And just in time for my birthday, too," she said, and turned to Kurtis, "Get dressed, Trent... We're going to do a bit of shopping."

-----------------

see, not much in the way of plot... This will be remedied next chapter.

uses Jedi Mind Trick You want to push the little purpley-blue-ish button that says "Go" next to the words "Submit review"...


	5. Valentine Traps

I ain't happy with this chapter... I am however, happy with chapter 6, but you'll have to wait for that one... This is the last update ya'll are gettin until I regain my internet after the move, since I'm movin out day after tomorrow, as I dunno when I'll get internet back. Shouldn't be more than a week or two.

Maybe that will prove to be enough time to get more reviews... :(

Anyway, enjoy...

Chapter Five  
Valentine Traps

_N__ot bad... Not bad at all. _Lara thought, as she spun in front of a mirror. She wore a black dress, that reached her ankles, though maneuverability wouldn't be a problem, if anything came up, since the skirt was split up to her hip on one side, on the other, gold and crimson flowers were embroidered all the way from the hem, up to just under her breasts. The neck was a low- very low in fact- v-cut, held up by the straps that tied around her neck. Most of her back was uncovered, as the back of the dress dipped down rather low, gold cord laces holding it tight around her hips. To finish it off, she had black spike-heels, that, though they looked nice, she was sure she would end up discarding before the night ended, and a black velvet choker, with a ruby sparkling in the center. She had her hair pulled up in a purposefully careless fashion, holding it high on the back of her head with various bejeweled clips, with several locks left hanging down her back, and a few in front, to frame her face.

The reason for the fancy state of dress? Well, for one, it was her birthday. Her thirty-fifth, to be exact. And, she was likely walking right into a trap set by Karel, and dragging Kurtis into it with her. The form of the trap? A party being held in a near by museum, celebrating a rather significant find. The one problem with this? The one who was supposedly throwing this party was more than likely dead, for in his place, in the pictures featured in the news clip Zip had showed her, was Karel. It was barely visible, but the mark on his hand, that identified him as the nephilim Lara had once thought she killed, was there. Also there were two other men she'd thought she'd gotten rid of. The other nephili, working with Karel. They were in the background of the picture, but still able to be seen clearly, in all their tattooed, nephilim glory.

The lack of hiding was what made Lara sure that this was nothing more than a plot to get her out in the open. Whatever "significant find" there was, was likely a fake, since if Karel had really obtained the objects he was looking for, he'd have just killed her, instead of going through the trouble of setting up a party.

The plan? Simple. Go to the party, enjoy herself for however long Karel decided to wait before making his move, find out what he knew, and get the hell out of the place. At least, it was simple in theory. She would be rather short on weapons. The dress wasn't meant to hide guns. The most she'd get away with was a knife. That was where her date came in handy. Kurtis' chirugai was small enough to fit inside the jacket of his tux, without being noticed, and maybe a small pistol, for Lara's use, as well.

If nothing else, she could always just steal a gun from whoever she was going to have to kill tonight.

---------------

Kurtis wasn't very happy, nor was he very comfortable. He'd never been one for formal wear. At least Lara hadn't made him go too fancy. A simple black tux, white shirt, red tie- since he had refused to let her force him into a bow-tie. He'd left his hair the way he normally had it. Messy, hanging in front of his face. He wasn't quite as calm as Lara about the prospect of walking right into a trap, and in his nervousness had caused him to grab a cigarette, and light it, despite having promised Lara to not smoke whilst inside.

He looked up at the clock, and noticed that time was getting short. They'd be late, if Lara didn't hurry up and get her admittedly attractive ass out of her room, and down to the main hall, where he'd been waiting, since getting dressed, forty-five minutes earlier. He twirled the purple rose he'd bought earlier around on his fingers. It felt horridly cheesy, but, it _was_ Valentine's Day, as well as Lara's birthday. She had saved his life, he at least owed her a flower... Then there was the small fact that he was slowly falling for the Lady of the house. But he wouldn't be telling her that.

"Stop pacing, dude," said Zip, from the doorway, "You look like a highschool kid on his first date, minus the acne... By the way, you might wanna put the smoke out, otherwise Lara'll kill ya."

"Can't blame me for bein' nervous," Kurtis replied, following Zip's suggestion, and putting out the cigarette. "We're waltzin' into what we know is a damn trap, and chances are, we're goin' to get ourselves fucked six ways from Sunday-"

"Not if you and Lara don't stop dancing around, and get to it already," Zip muttered.

Kurtis gave him a glare that could have peeled paint.

"What?" Zip shrugged. "You know it's true." _ And if you don't hurry up, I'll lose the bet with Alister, and I'll never hear the end of it, from him..._ Kurtis heard him add in his thoughts.

Ignoring both Zip's words, and thoughts- though wondering what the deal was with the bet- Kurtis continued, "And yet Lara insists on going... Does she always go on a suicide mission on her birthday?"

Zip seemed to think about this for a moment, then shrugged, "Most her missions are suicide, so yeah, generally."

"Generally, what?" said a voice from the top of the staircase. Both men looked up, and felt their jaws fall to somewhere around their feet... Lara looked stunning. Not that she didn't normally, but neither had seen her in anything other than her normal attire of shorts and tanktops... or in the recent cases, jeans and tanks.

She stepped gracefully down the steps, one leg being shown off quite well by the split in her skirt. Kurtis found himself rendered rather speechless, as corny as it sounded, as he watched her descend the stairs, to stand in front of him.

"Careful boys," she said, with an arrogant wink, reaching the bottom of the stairs, "You're drooling."

"Who's drooling and why-... Oh my..." Just as Zip and Kurtis managed to snap their jaws shut, Alister's dropped. "Lara, you're... Wow... I mean... Wow."

Getting a little irked with the way that Alis was staring at Lara, Kurtis cleared his throat, snapping the man out of his trance. The noise drew Lara's attention back to her "date". Well, now was as good a time as any. With an exaggerated bow, he presented the rose to her. He'd expected her to laugh at him, or question him, instead, the tomb raider took the rose, and, miracle of all miracles, actually said thank you.

----------------

No sign of Karel, or his men, yet... Or, no sign of what had been their last disguises. For all Lara knew, she could have shaken hands with the three nephilim fifty times that night, and not noticed. But then, wouldn't people be expecting to see their host? Or, perhaps had she seriously screwed up, and led them straight into a room full of nephilim? Surely not. They were supposed to be extinct, so even seeing three of them shouldn't have ever happened. But that was just it, if there were three, here in the building somewhere, who was to say there weren't more out there somewhere? Suddenly, Lara didn't feel quite so sure that their little plan was going to work.

She was staying glued to Kurtis' side, a suggestion made by Alister, to avoid giving one of the nephilim the chance to take the form of one of them and trick 'em. All she had to do was keep repeating over and over again in her head that she was NOT enjoying the feel of his body against hers... of his arm draped casually, yet possessively around her waist. Nope, not enjoying it at all.

"Lara! Kurtis!" she heard Alister's voice, through the ruby studs she wore in her ears... A fine idea of Zips, putting the speakers into the earrings... Though at first they'd thought it would only work for Lara, but Kurtis had surprised them all by informing them that he had one ear pierced, thus solving their problem.

Making sure no one was near enough to hear her, Lara replied, quietly, "What?"

"I can see Karel... At least I think it's him, and his helpers... Zip hacked into security system, and we've got views from all angles, from the computers... I've been keeping an eye out for our shape-changing friends."

"Thanks, Alis," said Kurtis, "Tell Zip I'll remind Lara to give you both raises...Now where's he coming from?"

"From the hall to your left... He made sure to lock the door he came out of... He's heading towards the main exhibit now."

"That means he's expecting us to try that room," Lara said to herself, "Kurtis, if we sneak out of here, can you use that nifty little farsee trick, and find the _real_ room of importance?"

When Kurtis nodded, she dragged him right in the direction of the hall Karel was coming from. About to ask if she were crazy, Kurtis never knew what hit him. One moment he was being dragged forcefully right towards the man who'd tortured him for more than a month, the next, the very woman dragging him had spun around, grabbed the front of his jacket, yanked him forward, hard, and was kissing him with what he was sure was more intensity than any other woman he'd met...

Logic told him that this was not the time for romance. Instinct said fuck logic. So, his arms went around the slender tomb raider, pulling her close against him, and he kissed her back. All too soon, she pulled away, and glanced over his shoulder.

"Well," she said, cheeks flushed, eyes alight with lust, "I can't guarantee he won't figure out that was us, within the next ten seconds, but that's ten seconds extra that we'll have... Come on..."

Kurtis hadn't even noticed Karel walk right by them, without so much as a second glance.

----------------

"That was the only thing you could think of to keep him from noticing us? It's not like he doesn't know we're here," Kurtis informed his companion, once he was done scouting ahead.

"Not without looking as though we were trying to hide, no," Lara replied, heading for the door that Kurtis pointed too, "Besides, it is Valentine's Day, it seemed fitting." She could feel him in her head again, and knew he wasn't going to buy that excuse, but this really was no time for the discussion that was going to come up sooner or later... Right then, she was hoping for later.

Kurtis seemed to get the message, for he let the subject drop, as he worked on using a little telekinesis to unlock the door. Just blowing it off its hinges might have attracted just a smidge too much attention. Sure there was no doubt that Karel knew they were there, but they could do without him knowing _exactly_ where. He opened the now unlocked door, and half-bowed to Lara. "Ladies first."

Rolling her eyes, Lara walked past him, and into Karel's office. The room was certainly dark, and cryptic looking enough. Wasting no time, Lara started digging through whatever she could get her hands on, Kurtis following suit. She looked for anything to do with the Fates, or the items they'd owned. She was about to give up when she found one page, with mentions of what had happened in Greece, and the possible whereabouts of Clotho's spindle, and Atropos' shears...

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kurtis sway on his feet a bit, meaning he'd been using his farsee again, and had just returned to his body... "We've got company coming, Lara... Karel's buddies, and they're coming fast... with very very big guns."

Lara quickly folded the paper she'd found, deciding it might be a bit better to read it later, and stuffed it in the front of her dress. "Come on, we need to get out of here... The vents will work... I hope."

"You hope?"

"Just lock the door, and come on."

With a wave of his hand, Kurtis did as she said, and gave her a boost up into the ventilation shaft. "Well, so much for keeping this dress... It's going to be filthy by the time we're out of here..."

"Stop complaining, and move, Croft," Kurtis said from behind her.

It was a moment before Lara obliged. She gathered the skirt of her dress, and tied it. That would prevent _some _damage, at least, since she wouldn't be crawling on it. When she'd chose it for maneuverability, she hadn't been thinking about crawling through ventilation shafts. She just had to ignore the fact that with the split in the skirt, and the way it was tied, Kurtis was going to be getting quite the show as she moved. Despite this, she crawled forward, trying hard to do so quietly, so as not to alert anyone of their location. _Blue, Croft?_ she heard Kurtis' voice in her head. Damn. Not only was he getting a hell of a view, he had to comment on it too?_ I pegged you for the black or red lace type._

_I happen to like blue,_ Lara thought back, in as venomous a tone as she could manage, in her head,_ And lace is never good to wear on a mission... It's dreadfully uncomfortable... Now stop oggling at my choice of knickers, and move, before they catch us._

With a quiet chuckle, Kurtis did as he was told. They hadn't gone far, though, when bullets suddenly tore through the metal in front of Lara, forcing her to backtrack as fast as she could, which resulted in her running into Kurtis. So much for Karel not knowing where they were. Too late to stop moving now though. They were sitting ducks as it was... No need to actually be _sitting_.

"Okay, forget being quiet for a moment, and just move," she muttered, before moving forward, with as much speed as crawling would allow. Of course, both her and Kurtis doing this sounded like a herd of elephants, at least it might keep them ahead of the gun fire... Or semi-ahead of it, for Lara felt a bullet graze her arm, but she did her best to ignore the pain. She'd had worse.

They finally came to an area where they could stand, and found a short ladder, leading up into a higher part of the vents. The pair's escape was cut off, however, when green bits of energy/flame tore through the metal underneath their feet, and sent them crashing down into the room below, only to land on a large glass display case. _Those shards are going to be a cast-iron bitch to get out later,_ Kurtis thought with a grimace, as the glass shattered. Done falling, for the moment, anyway, Kurtis looked up to find that he and Lara were looking right at the two Nephilim working with Karel.

"Fuck."

--------------

"What did you do with Kurtis?" Lara spat, to one of her captors. Aside from their flight, and flame abilities, they were also disturbingly strong. They had thrown her into a cell, in the basement of the museum, and had dragged Kurtis off else where. Now they were back, and looking at her as though she were an annoying bug that needed to be stepped on. Or dissected.

She could see her partner's boran x, and his chirugai laying not too far away, next to where the "guards" were sitting. "Where's Karel?"

"Joachim has other business to attend to," replied the older-looking of the two, "But he sends you and your friend his regards. He'll be back to deal with you both, shortly."

"Joachim, eh? And what're your names? Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum?" _Oh, brilliant Lara, insult them. That will get you nowhere fast. Actually, it's liable to land you in hell real fast._

Much to Lara's shock, the one laughed. "I am Gabriel," said the one who'd spoken before, "My brother is Lucas. And you, Miss Croft, are a trouble maker. Did you really think you could sneak in here, and get away?"

Lara offered no reply. She only shrugged. Truth was, she'd been hoping. Might have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for the lack of exits, aside from the damn vent system. She really wanted to assure them that one way or another, she'd be getting out of there, but decided it was best not to put them on their guard. Though they would have likely just laughed at the idea that she, a mortal, could possibly get out. She reached up to her ear, trying to convey the message of "help!" to Zip and Alister, without speaking, only to find that her earrings were gone... Had they fallen out during her drop from the vents? They must have, for Lara was sure she'd have noticed, if one of her captors had taken them...

Well, wasn't this just great? She was sitting in a dark, dirty cell, in a dress she'd paid a fortune for, her only way of calling for help was gone, and her companion was locked up else where, equally defenseless. At least she'd been right about it being a trap. But that did little to comfort her. She really wasn't seeing any way to escape.

Drifting back to the real world, from her thoughts, she noticed that Gabriel and Lucas were gone. To where, she had no idea, but they were gone, and that was what mattered. Rushing to the bars of the cell, she slipped her arm through a gap between said bars, and started to reach for Kurtis' weapons. She could almost reach the chirugai... Just an inch or so away... Just stretch a little bit more... A noise down the hall caught her attention for just a moment. She turned her head in that direction, to see if she could make out what was going on, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement, then felt metal come in contact with her hand.

No... The thing couldn't have move towards her on its own. She'd just managed to reach it without noticing it... Yeah, that was it... Nothing more. She pulled her arm, and the metal disk, back into the cell, and the noise she'd heard turned into voices.

"Keep an eye on cells four, and nine," that sounded like Gabriel, "Lucas and I need to find Joachim..."

"Right," she heard a bored, british voice respond.

Cells four, and nine eh? Those had to be the ones she and Kurtis were being held in. A sudden idea formed in her head, as she remembered what she'd done to Kurtis, in the Strahov, after being locked in that airlock chamber. Hearing footsteps coming in her direction, she used the uneven brick wall to climb up, above the doorway, where her new guard wouldn't be able to see her... Hopefully he was human, and stupid enough to come into the cell...

A sudden, quiet _shink_ noise made her twitch a bit. She looked at the chirugai in her hand. The blades had sprung out... Maybe she'd found the catch that released the blades? Yeah. That was it. It had to be. Even though she knew there wasn't one. She'd looked it over for said catch every day since Kurtis had left it in the hospital. No time to think about it now; there was a confused "what the?" coming from the hall, outside the cell. Lara smirked as she heard the instantly recognizable sound of keys jingling in a lock. With a loud grating sound, the cell door opened, and a man dressed in the same black outfits she'd seen Karel's men in Greece wearing... minus the ski mask, and the heavy coat, entered. She waited for him to move forward just a bit more, before she dropped down, silently, behind him.

The bladed disk in hand Lara spoke, "Looking for me?"

The man whirled around, and, letting out a sigh of relief when she saw no nephilim markings on him, Lara struck with the chirugai, the blades slicing easily through his throat. Blood poured from the wound, soaking her hand, and splashing her face. Not bothering to clean it off, Lara grabbed the dead man's keys, and left the cell, grabbing Kurtis' boran x, on her way out. Now to find Kurtis, and get the hell out of there. It didn't take her long to find him. She could hear him muttering to himself long before she got to the cell.

He eyed here warily, as Lara unlocked the cell door, and no sooner had she opened in, then she found herself being yanked in, and slammed against a wall.

"Ow! Kurtis, what the hell! It's me!" clearly he thought she was Karel. The look of mistrust in his eyes was enough to tell her that.

Her friend didn't reply, he just took a look at her right hand. No mark... But if Kurtis was as cautious as she thought he was, he wasn't going to be satisfied with just that. There was no guarantee Karel couldn't hide the mark on his hand, as easily as he changed his appearance.

So, she said the first thing that came to mind, "You had me pegged as the black or red lace type." That seemed to convince him, since his expression was one of relief. But still, he said nothing. Nor did he release her. "Kurtis?"

Kurtis simply stared at her, for a moment, then leaned forward, and kissed her. She froze, in shock for a moment, but before she could return the kiss, Kurtis had straightened, and moved away from her. "C'mon, lets go," he said, as though he hadn't just kissed her for all he was worth.

_What the hell was that about?_ She wondered, following him out of the cell.

_Payback_, came the mental reply.

-------------------

"So, did you two enjoy your evening?" Zip asked, slyly, upon their return to Croft Manor.

"If you mean getting shot at, getting my dress ruined, and obtaining a possible useful bit of information, why yes, we did. Much better than my last few birthdays," Lara replied cheerily. Thankfully, Lucas, Gabriel, and Karel had been nowhere in sight when they'd made their escape from the museum. She heard Kurtis scoff, but ignored it. Just like she was ignoring the fact she'd failed to mention his chirugai's strange behavior.

"And what information would that be, per se?" Alister asked, accepting a cup of tea, from Winston, whom was shaking his head at Lara's idea of an enjoyable evening.

Lara pulled the piece of paper she'd obtained, out of the front of her dress, "This, I didn't get the chance to read it, earlier, but it mentioned something about Greece, and what they were intending to do with the artifacts... " She unfolded the paper, cleared her throat and read it. The first half was handwritten, the second had been printed...

"_Neither the shears nor the spindle being in Greece is disheartening, true, but Joachim doesn't seem worried. Why should he? The items can't have fallen off the face of the earth. We've all the time in the world to find what we need... And the life required in trade for the rebirth of our race is not specific... We merely need someone of angelic descent, which means, centuries from now, we could still pull this off, provided the family line doesn't die off. First, we need to locate such a person. You aren't too keen on becoming a sacrifice, are you Gabriel? I know I'm not. Joachim certainly won't be offering himself. But, if the bit of the old prophecy I found is true, this person of angelic descent isn't even immortal... I've told Joachim this, and he says he will see about tracking ancient family lines... "_

And so ended the handwritten part, obviously a note from Lucas to Gabriel. But why hadn't he just said it aloud? But now she thought about it, she hadn't heard Lucas speak at the museum. He hadn't even laughed, when his brother had... Perhaps he wasn't capable of speech? It didn't matter... Now on to the printed part.

"_Fall, the Fates shall  
When arisen, the Angels have  
To Death, a tool of Life turns  
and to Life, a tool of Death changes  
Replaced, the Spinner will be,  
By one with no soul.  
Return to the gods one of his own, he must  
To bring his brethren to life  
But this gift must not immortal be  
Or his life Atropos will take."_

"So now what? Do we keep looking for the shears, and the spindle, or do we try to track down this person they're going to need, and protect, or kill whoever it is?" Kurtis wondered aloud, "And what's it mean by a tool of life changing into a tool of death and vice versa?"

"Well, the Spindle is a tool of life," said Alister, "And the shears a tool of death... If Karel intends to respin life-threads of the nephilim, and as such, unleashing hell and death on earth, that changes it to a tool of death wouldn't you say? And since there isn't a more thorough way to kill someone than to cut their life-thread, that could be done to stop Karel, and save the world, hence making the shears a tool of life."

"Very good Alister..." said Lara, "As for which to do... We do both... Alister, you start researching this prophecy, and see what you can find out about the non-immortal family of angelic descent would you? In the meantime, Zip, I want you to hack into every museum you possibly can, and see if you can find anything on our magical sewing tools. In the morning, I'll start asking some of my contacts what they know... And if they don't want to answer my questions..." She looked over at Kurtis, "Well that's where your Jedi Mind Tricks come in handy, Trent."

"It's telepathy, and telekinesis," Kurtis replied, "Jedi Mind Tricks require the ability to control the weak minded, and other such things."

-----------------

Right... so that prophecy pretty much sucks... I was never good at stuff like that... Now... you want to push the little button that says "Go" right next to the selection of "submit review" -waves hand like a jedi-


	6. A Necessary Discussion

Short chapter here, but I was determined to end it where I did.

Also... I know that the history I provided in this chap is likely nothing to do with the history that was originally intended, but meesa no care. It took a long while to write actually, to work out what I wanted and such. And thanks to Chirugal for giving me the names of the Lux Veritatis families... I could not for the life of me locate any more than Limoux and Vasiley... This being because I've not actually PLAYED AOD, and I couldn't get my sister to go back to the chamber with all the statues. Hall of Trophies I think it is (before you ask, I'd have done it myself but AOD is just one of those games that I can't play.. the story is good, the controls suck.)

And, I am aware that The Pick of Destiny didn't exist in 2004, but, I couldn't resist, since I was thinking about it, the day I wrote this chapter, and I couldn't get the idea that the lines Kurtis mentions somehow fit him... don't ask, I'm just weird that way.

And to end this blabbering, I give you something that has nothing to do with writing: I'm moved into my new house now, and I absolutely love it! And I lied, it does have something to do with writing: now that alot of the stress from moving is gone, I'm able to write alot more now, and write alot better, as well, so hopefully we'll have no more poor chapters in this fic.

Chapter Six

A Necessary Discussion

_"R_un!" Kurtis shouted, over the noise. Noise being the sound of thousands of entities looking for an escape from the chamber in which he stood. "Lara, run!"

"No!" Lara shouted back. Kurtis wasn't even entirely sure what he was telling her to run from, just that she needed to get out of there, before something bad happened.

He knew why she wasn't running though. Her reluctance to believe in fate, or prophecy. Her desire to be in total control. Before he could tell her this, he heard someone else speak, in Greek... How in the hell he understood what was being said, Kurtis had no idea, but he knew that whoever had spoke was summoning a life-thread from the black, flat-surfaced pool in the center of the room... Lara's thread. And it was Karel doing the summoning. The nephilim held a simple, rather plain looking pair of shears, and he was preparing to snip the fragile thread before him... Preparing to kill Lara. Kurtis rushed towards him, but even he could tell it was too late.

The shears closed on the glowing gold thread with a quiet snip, that was somehow audible, even over all the noise. Kurtis saw Lara suddenly drop, seconds before he did so himself... Odd, he'd never heard Karel call for his thread...

---------------

Kurtis snapped awake from his rather strange nightmare, summoning his chirugai to him, as though he expected Karel to be there, in his room... That was ridiculous of course. If Karel had gotten into Lara's mansion, the alarms would have gone off. _That was weird... Usually I know what the hell's goin' on in my dreams, even if I don't know how I know._ Shaking his head at the decidedly weird dream, Kurtis rolled out of bed. First things first. A shower, and then he was going to corner Lara, and whether she liked it or not, they were going to discuss things. She'd been avoiding being alone with him since Valentine's Day, three days before. He'd caught her thoughts, in the museum, about a discussion needing to happen, sooner or later. Apparently, for her, 'later' had become once the mess with Karel was sorted out. Well, Kurtis Trent wasn't the most patient of men. And the discussion they were supposed to have, had been coming since they'd become friends, in Prague, nearly two months before.

Alis still hadn't managed to find anything on the prophecy Lara'd found in Karel's office, which was a bit disheartening. But then, if they couldn't find any information, then it was likely that Karel had hit the same roadblock. Zip hadn't had much better luck with the shears and the spindle, either... Though he had said the night before, that he thought he was on the right track, and to give him a few days. As for Kurtis and Lara's job; talking to her fellow archaeologists, that was getting them nowhere. All either had no idea where the items in question could possibly be, or were certain that they were nothing more than a myth.

In the bathroom, connected to his room, Kurtis turned on the water, adjusting the temperature until steam rose from the steady flow of water. He ran a hand through his messy, slept-on hair, and caught sight of his reflection. He hadn't been sleeping well, and it was showing. With a shrug at the still-thin man of thirty-four that he saw in the mirror, he turned back towards the tub, switched the water-flow to the shower, and, after removing the sweatpants he slept in, stepped in, under the steaming water.

By the time he got out, the entire bathroom was filled with steam, making it damn near impossible to see.

Towel wrapped around his waist, he went back into his bedroom, using his fingers to shake the water from his hair. He'd have to cut it again soon. Not evening bothering to look around, he headed straight for the dresser, where the few things he'd had shipped from his "home" were put away. Of course, the place in Virginia wasn't his home, no more than Texas had been, before that, or Utah, before that, or any of the other states he'd lived in, and he'd lived in them all, for a short time. Really, what was in the small dresser of one of the many guest rooms in the Croft mansion was what made a place home, for him. As long as Kurtis Micheal Trent had his clothes, his music, and the few items he considered important, he could be content just about anywhere. He'd never stayed in a place very long. A few months, at most, always on the move. It wasn't in his nature, to sit still, no more than it was in Lara's. Maybe that was why he was drawn to her. They were so alike.

But, at least Lara had a real home to return to, when she just wanted a break from everything. Friends, to see. Though she referred to Zip, Alis, and Winston as her family. Kurtis had nothing. No real home, no friends, no family. All his friends had long since forgotten him, and his family was long dead. But then... That wasn't exactly true. He was becoming great friends with Alis, and Zip. He liked to think he was making progress with Winston, though, that may have been wishful thinking. And Lara. Lady Lara Croft. He wouldn't call it love, what he felt for her, not yet, but it was something damn close to it, and if the woman would just stop avoiding him, and let him say his two cents, then it might turn into love, given time.

"Are you going to get dressed, or are you going to stand there, with your head in the clouds all day?"

Kurtis was sure he jumped two feet off the floor when he heard Lara speak. He hadn't even noticed that she was sitting on his bed, watching him, amusement lighting up her beautiful chocolate eyes. "Can't a man even get dressed in peace in this house?"

"Well, I was in plain sight when you came out of the bathroom, but you obviously managed not to see me. Day dreaming?"

"More like thinkin' about things I usually prefer to avoid thinkin' about. Look, Lara we-"

"Need to talk," Lara cut him off, finishing his sentence, "Yeah, I know..."

Kurtis nodded, "Lemme get dressed... I'll be out in a minute..." He dug a pair of pants, and a t-shirt reading "Respect my athoritah!" out of the top dresser drawer, and headed back for the bathroom, since Lara seemed to have no intentions of leaving for a moment. She was still sitting on the bed, when he returned a minute later, fully dressed.

Lara started speaking the moment he appeared in the doorway, "What happened in that museum was-"

"A distraction only."

"You agree?" she sounded rather shocked.

"No," Kurtis shook his head, "I don't, but I knew what you were gonna say. And I also know that you're aware that isn't true."

"Yes, it is," Lara insisted, "I-... Well, I had to keep Karel from-"

"Bullshit. He knew we were there, and most likely knew it was us. So why don't you tell me what's really the problem, before _I_ tell you what it is."

Lara got to her feet, eyes flashing angrily, "Fine, tell me what the problem is, if you think you know."

"Oh, I don't think, sweetheart, I know. The problem is, you're afraid," Kurtis almost smiled in satisfaction when he saw her twitch a bit. He knew he'd struck a nerve.

"Afraid?" Lara scoffed, "Please."

"Oh but you are. You're afraid of lettin' anyone in, after what happened to you in Egypt," she'd told him that story on the flight back from Greece, though she'd left out the details. He'd found those out by poking around in her memories. "Afraid that if you do, the same thing will happen again. News flash, Lara, that's part of trustin' someone. Knowing that there's a possibility they could stab you in the back, but trustin' them not to. So you made a bad call... Who doesn't once in a while. But, you trusted me in the Strahov, you trusted me to have your back, the other night. Why can't you trust me again, now?"

Lara stared at him for a moment, then turned to flee, but Kurtis caught her by the arm, and spun her around to face him, "No you don't. You're the one who said we needed to talk, so talk." He backed her up against the wall, to keep her from going anywhere.

"Let go of me, Trent," she hissed, struggling against his grip.

"Not until you admit I'm right, Croft. Go on, say it. "

"I said let go," she almost manged to get away, but before she could fully squirm away, Kurtis pressed her hard against the wall with his own body.

"And I said not until you either admit I'm right... Or can give a good reason as to why I'm not." She had wanted to talk, well, god damn it, they were going to talk, even if he had to tie her to something. She was fighting with herself again. He could feel that. The side of her that wanted to be a lone wolf, with no one to hold her back was struggling to win over the side that wanted desperately to have a connection with someone.

------

Lara couldn't bring herself to meet Kurtis' eyes. He was right. She was afraid, but she wasn't ready to admit it, to him, or to herself...Even if she wanted to. She had been afraid of trusting anyone, about anything, after Egypt. It had taken months for even Winston, Alister and Zip to break through the walls she'd built around herself, when she returned. Then when Von Croy had contacted her, the walls had started going up again, and hadn't stopped. But, something, something had allowed her to trust Kurtis, to work with him, in the Strahov. Something kept her from leaving him to die, something kept her from taking off the moment she found out he was going to live, and something had kept her from telling him to leave her home, the moment he'd had the strength to. And now, part of her was screaming at her to tell the man in front of her that he was right. To admit it, and actually have the talk she'd come into his room to have, not the one it had turned into, after she'd had some time to think about it. Another part, the part that had changed what was supposed to be an admission of her feelings, into an argument, was telling her to say to hell with him. To hit him, and leave.

"You say I don't trust you, Kurtis," she finally said, meeting his gaze, "You've no idea how much I do trust you... Do you know how long it took my friends to break through the walls that never even phased you? I built those walls to keep people out, to keep them from seeing the real me... the weak, pathetic me... Yet it didn't stop you. I trusted you in the Strahov, and in the museum, and I still trust you now. But that's not the point."

"Then what is?"

"I don't know... Alright? I honestly don't know."

"Yes you do. I already told you. You're afraid... But not of trustin' me, like I thought. You're afraid of lettin' yourself love... Aren't you? Get your heart broken a time too many?"

Lara's eyes narrowed, "I lost one too many of the people I did love," she replied... Her mother, her father, Amanda, Werner, Terry... Everyone she loved died.

"I'm not goin' anywhere, Lara," Kurtis said, voice almost a whisper, having read her thoughts, "I've nearly died twice, in your company," he continued when she grimaced, at the memories of those incidents, "But to even things out, you were there to save me... Let me in, Lara. You've taken worse leaps of faith in your career, I'm sure..." To further plead his case, he closed the short distance between their faces, and kissed her.

Lara's "lone wolf" side resisted only a moment longer, but it was being shoved, kicking and screaming, out the door, by the other side. The door shut, and Lara let herself respond to the kiss, her now-free arms went around Kurtis' neck, her fingers burying themselves in his hair. She felt his tongue on her lips, and parted them to let him in, pulling him, if possible, closer to her.

Neither heard the door open. They did, however, hear Alister's "Oh... I, uh, I'm sorry, I didn't-..."

Breaking the kiss with a groan, Kurtis turned to Alister, "Alis, man, you'd better have a damn good reason for being in here."

If Lara hadn't been rather annoyed with the interruption as well, she might have laughed at the color draining from Alister's face.

"I, uh, I have some information on that prophecy... I just thought that... you might want to know... I didn't mean to interrupt... I'll just go back to the library, shall I?" The man turned and fled.

"Whoah, dude!" Zip's voice came from the hall, "Trying to break speed records? The hell's wrong with- Oh." He stopped, when he stepped into the room, to see Lara still pressed against the wall, by Kurtis. "Right... Bye." He left almost as fast as Alister had.

"Do we have to see what they wanted?" Kurtis wondered, aloud, already knowing the answer.

----------

"Alright... Well, after much digging, and translating, I managed to find something on a second 'race' if you will, that came from Angels... Or, the Nephilim, to be more specific," Alister said, as Lara, Kurtis, and Zip gathered around him. "As you know, it's believed that the Nephilim are the only truly soulless beings in existence... Well, there were five of them, and five only, that broke every rule that was the nephilim race. They weren't immortal, they couldn't change their appearance, and they had souls. Basically, they were more human than angel, save for a few abilities. These five, who, by the way, were brothers, were against their soulless and decidedly evil brethren. They stopped calling themselves nephilim, and instead took on the name Lux Veritatis."

All eyes went to Kurtis, who stared at Alister. Clearly he hadn't been expecting this piece of news. "So... Karel, if he finds this out, will be after me?" after a moment, he said, "Wait a minute... You said five... There were only four Lux Veritatis families, originally...Of course, they branched off a bit, and there were seven later on, but it was four to start with..." he ticked the names off on his hand, "Vasiley, Decombel, Limoux, and Guilhelm... Montsegur, Aicard, and Occitan came later. Not much later, but a little..."

Alister shook his head, "No on both counts. Karel won't be after you, since, I found the rest of that prophecy, and since it's rather long, I won't bother to recite it... But what it boils down to is that Karel needs a woman of the Lux Veritatis line, and he needs her by the Summer Solstice."

"Well, we've nothin' to worry about," Kurtis muttered, still trying to process the new knowledge that somewhere down the family line, he was, in part, the very creature he'd been taught to hate... "I'm the last one, and I doubt a sex change is going to fool the Gods..."

Again Alister shook his head, "Weren't you listening? I said you were wrong about there only being four families... The fifth line vanished several centuries ago... I've been trying to go through the normal records, to see if I can find out if the line has even survived until now, but it's difficult... Trying to get into records from that far back is rather hard you know. But, it is entirely possible that if that line did continue, even after they disappeared from the Lux Veritatis records, that there is another person out there... And that Karel could find that person. "

--------------

It was quite clear to Lara that the information Alister had given them was troubling Kurtis... More the having descended from the nephilim, than anything else. He seemed rather convinced that if there HAD been a fifth family line, it had long since died out. Lara had to admit, she agreed with him... And even if it still existed, the chances of Karel ever finding the remnants of it were slim to none. If Alister was having trouble, Karel would never figure it out. Or, she hoped anyway.

They were sitting on the steps leading up to the front door. Kurtis was staring blankly into nothingness, an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips. Every time he went to light it, he'd suddenly stop, as if he'd thought of something important, and never get around to bringing his lighter to it. It was kind of funny, actually. The silence allowed Lara's own thoughts to wander. That kiss, with Kurtis... She'd let herself feel something, in that one, more so than when she'd kissed him in the museum. And she wanted nothing more than to feel like that again. The question was, would that feeling, whatever it was, since it certainly wasn't love, yet, last? Or was what both of them felt for the other simply curiosity, that, once satisfied, would fade?

No, she told herself. Kurtis wasn't like Alex. They wouldn't mutually lose interest in one another. Nor was he like Terry. Something told her that a betrayal like Terry's wasn't a thing Kurtis could do... Even if he was a bit of an ass. Really. Holding her against a wall, until he got what he wanted? Decidedly not fair. She glanced over at her partner, and noticed his cigarette was still unlit.

"Light it, or get rid of it," she said, snapping him out of whatever part of his mind he'd retreated into. Surprisingly, he got rid of the thing. After several more minutes of silence, she asked, "So, Kurtis, what's your story?"

She expected him to refuse to answer, but again he surprised her, by actually speaking. "You ever seen the movie 'The Pick of Destiny'?"

"Unfortunately, part of it, yes," Zip had managed to hold her prisoner in the computer lab part of the living room long enough for her to catch the beginning of it.

"Well, the first few lines of the openin' song pretty much sums things up. My father was... Well lets just say he was a little too devoted to destroyin' any last bit of the nephilim that remained... He expected his kids- me, my brother, and my sister- to be the same... My brother and sister fell in line perfectly, I didn't, but when their sixteenth birthdays rolled around, they found they had none of the family powers... So, it was down to me, the youngest, and most annoyin' of the three. Lucky me, I got all the abilities, none of the patience for lessons. Big disappointment to my dad. Asked more than once why I, out of his three children, had to be the only one to carry on the Lux Veritatis line. Before he died, he'd gotten to the point of nagging at me to find some nice woman, and preserve the family... Wasn't long after I swore to him that he'd be gettin' no grandchildren from me, that Eckhardt killed him, and my siblings..."

"And your mother?" Lara inquired, finding it rather hard to picture the man next to her as a child... Teenager or otherwise.

"I don't know, really. She just vanished, when I was nine. A body was found, a couple months after that, but no one ever found out for sure if it was her... " He sighed, then looked in Lara's direction, thinking the same thing of her, as she had him... A child Lara was hard to picture, "And you?"

"I lost my mother, when I was a little girl... something went wrong with our plane, and we crashed... I found... Well, I'm not entirely sure what it was, but when I touched it, something happened. It opened something. My mother spoke to whatever was in it, and then the thing exploded, and my mother was just gone. My father always believed she was alive. I just wanted to know what had happened to her. My father's ideas didn't win him many popularity contests. No one ever believe his theories on what had happened to her. When he died, I promised I'd find out what happened to mother, on my own... Then Egypt happened... And France, and now all this. After this, the world can wait, I'm going to find out what happened to mother..."

---------------

Alister rubbed his eyes wearily, as he handed Zip the money he was owed, for the little bet they'd had going on Lara and their house guest. If only they'd kept up the avoidance act for another week! Alister wouldn't have been handing Zip a twenty right then. But oh well... At least now when the two were in a room together, the tension wouldn't seep into everyone. He turned his attention back to his computer screen. All day, since he'd given his friends that history lesson, he'd been trying to find a way to trace the missing Lux Veritatis line. It was proving to be a bit more difficult that he would have thought possible.

Finally, he found a possible lead. Getting more than a little excited about possibly having information for Lara by morning, he started looking into what he'd found.

It had taken him all night, but finally, in just a few seconds, he was going to see who the potential sacrifice was. _ Come on, you stupid thing... Load, damn you! Load!_ he'd been working all night, and now his computer decided to get cheeky with him. Typical. _Ah! Finally!_ Anxiously chewing on a pencil, Alister began reading the words on the screen before him. He'd found the missing Lux Veritatis line... he was sure of it. So, why bother reading all the extra curricular stuff? Had he been in a better mood, he might have, but he wasn't in a better mood, and he wanted to know who Lara and Kurtis were going to have to either protect or kill...

He skipped all the way down to the bottom of the page.

His jaw dropped a bit, pencil falling from his mouth.

"Zip," he said, to his friend, whom sat in the chair next to him, head on the desk, asleep, a puddle of saliva forming at the corner of his mouth, "Zip!"

"The gnomes are coming!" Zip nearly shouted, shooting up as if someone had shocked him, when Alister shook him a bit. When he realized he was awake, he wiped the spit from his mouth and looked at Alister, "Don't do that man... What's up? It's three in the morning... I'm not ready to hear anymore history lessons yet..."

"No, you idiot, look! I found out who Karel's going to be coming after!"

Zip rubbed his eyes, and blinked a bit, before looking at Alister's computer. "I wonder if it's entirely safe to enter either Kurtis or Lara's rooms to inform them of this rather troubling news..." was all he said.

------------------

Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnn!

Lines Kurtis was talking about are as follows:  
"A long ass fucking time age  
in a town called Kickapoo  
there lived a humble family, religious through and through  
but yea there was a black sheep, and he knew just what to do  
his name was young JB and he refused to step in line"

And then another I think fits with what he was describing:  
"You disobeyed my orders, son, why were you ever born? Your brother's ten times better than you, Jesus loves him more."

Also, the next update will be this thursday IF I get at least one review... I'd prefer more, but one will work... if not, then next thursday it is... So...plllllleeeeeeaaaasssseeee review? -bats eyelashes- please? I really want to know what ya'll think, good or bad.


	7. The Bad News and the Good News

Another short one, forgive me. But it's really hard to end chapters exactly where you want to, when you want them to be a certain length.

Chapter eight is longer... I think.

Also... I recently started writing on Chapter Twelve, and I thought I would mention now that there are things in this fic that may seem unimportant... Even after the end... Let me assure you that it is not out of simple carelessness, or laziness that I don't explain certain things by the time we get to the last chapter...

Again I beg people to start reviewing more... Like, every chapter...

This chapter, by the way, goes to Shelley ere, for reviewing last chapter.

And by the way, there's another south park reference in this chap, to go along with the one in the last chapter

--------------------

Chapter Seven

The Bad News and the Good News

_T_he knocking would not cease, no matter how much Lara tried to ignore it. It had to be Zip or Alister... But for heaven's sake, why did they have to keep up that infernal banging? And at three in the morning? What was so important that they couldn't let her sleep a bit longer? Also, they would normally just burst into her room if they had anything to say, no knocking needed. Why were they-... oh. If she hadn't been grumpy, at being woken up so early, she might have grinned, or even laughed. They were afraid of what view they might get, were they to walk in, uninvited. Well, she hated to disappoint them, but they would see no such sight this time. Whilst she hadn't slept alone, nothing had happened. She and Kurtis had just been up late, swapping tales of their adventures, and had fallen asleep.

Speaking of Kurtis... He had his head stuffed under a pillow, and muffled threats about killing whoever was at the door were getting increasingly violent. Finally the muffled question of "The fuck do they want?" came from the pillow.

"No clue," Lara muttered, not sure if he could hear her or not. She raised her voice for the knocking-culprit to hear, "Oh come in, or go away!"

The door opened, and the light clicked on, and Zip and Alister stepped in, looking as though they were ready to cover their eyes and run. Lara sighed, and sat up, kicking the covers off of herself, her foot coming in contact with Kurtis' leg on accident.

A barely audible "ow!" came from beneath the pillow.

"What do you two want at this ungodly hour?" Lara yawned, straightening the t-shirt she'd fallen asleep in. "Make it quick."

"Very quick," Kurtis added, head still firmly stuffed under his pillow.

"Shut it, Kenny," said Zip, "Alister here found out who Karel needs."

"Who?" both Lara, and Kurtis asked at the same time. Tired of his muffled speech, Lara yanked the pillow off of his head, and hit him with it.

"You won't believe it, unless you see it for yourself..." said Alister, "Come on."

-------------

"Hey Kurtis, remember when you said we'd have to either protect or kill whoever Karel needed?" Alister asked, as he sat down in front of his computer.

"Yes, why?"

"You may want to remove the 'kill' from that list of options... You're not going to believe this, but, the last living descendant of the fifth Lux Veritatis line is," he turned the monitor around until Lara and Kurtis could see it, "You, Lara."

Lara blinked at him, sure that she had just misheard him. He couldn't have just said that _she_ was the descendant of the Lux Veritatis. No, that was impossible. It had to be impossible. She was Lara Croft, archaeologist extraordinaire, sure, but she wasn't part of some mystical family line. She wasn't part of some prophecy, which by the way, wouldn't be coming true... Then it hit her...

"The chirugai..." she muttered, making a dumbfounded Kurtis suddenly look her way. "The chirugai... When you were calling it, you said it refused to go... When we were locked up in the museum, it moved, for me. Just a few inches, when I couldn't quite reach it... Then when I needed a weapon to use against the guard, the blades came out... "

"Your bloodline would have nothin' to do with that," said Kurtis, looking, if possible, even more bewildered, "That chirugai is mine, and mine alone... It's not meant to obey anyone else's commands, not even another Lux Veritatis, with or without the powers," he looked at Alister, "Are you sure this is right?" he pointed at the computer screen. "Absolutely certain."

"Yes," Alister replied, "I checked, believe me, I checked... I thought it was wrong, at first too... But it's not. Through her mother's side, Lara is the last of the fifth Lux Veritatis line, and if Karel finds out, you can bet, he'll be here in a heartbeat to grab her... Just because he has until the summer solstice to carry out his little plot doesn't mean he has to wait until then to do it."

"Then we don't let him find out," Lara said quietly, expression blank, unreadable. With that, she turned, and left.

----------------

In her room, Lara sat on her bed, staring at her hands, off in her own world. Usually, she was just a bystander when it came to prophecies, and such things. Just a third party, usually there to throw things into the gears that were destiny, and generally piss everyone off. But this time, she was actually part of the prophecy she was supposed to stop from happening. She was the sacrifice of said prophecy, actually, which only served to make things worse. Of all the people in the world, that line had to trace down to her, didn't it? If there was a God, he was determined to get her to believe in fate. And he was going to fail. This whole thing, while it was a minor setback in her plans to remain in complete control of her destiny, wasn't going to stop her.

The shock wearing off a bit, her mind wandered to the other thing bothering her. Kurtis' chirugai. If it wasn't supposed to obey anyone's commands but his, and since she didn't have any of the Lux Veritatis tricks, why then, had it reacted to her? It was... troubling, to say the least, and she doubted that she'd be satisfied until she found out the reason behind the weapon's strange behavior. _Stupid thing... Stupid fucking prophecy... Why me? If I ever get my hands on the Fates, I'll use Atropos' shears on all three of them, see if they like their lives being messed with... _So, she and Kurtis had both learned something important about their family history... Too bad they both had to learn the same thing.

-----------------

"Very good, Lucas," said Karel to the black-haired man next to him, though he didn't look at him. His attention was on the laptop screen in front of him. Lucas was rather good with computers, and everything that was being shown in the Croft manor was right in front of him. "A clever idea, leaving that little note for them to find... Now they've done all the work for us."

Lucas, whom was in fact mute, grinned, and nodded.

"Shall we go to the mansion, Joachim?" Gabriel asked, tired of waiting... All he wanted was to bring the nephilim back. Playing games with old enemies was a waste of time, but Joachim seemed intent on playing with his food before he ate it...

"No," Karel shook his head, "We still don't know where the item we require is... But, Ms. Croft and her friends are quite adept at finding things... We'll let them do the searching, then claim the prize ourselves. "

Irritated, but refusing to let it be known, Gabriel nodded, "Very well... We'll keep an eye on their progress..."

-----------------

Kurtis paced back and forth in the gym, idly making his chirugai fly about, in varying patterns. It was something to do, when he needed a distraction, and right then, he needed one. This changed alot. Before, the little prophecy wasn't much to be worried about... They just had to make sure that they got the tools before Karel did, and kill him... and his buddies. Now, it was getting a bit personal. If Karel found out it was Lara he was going to need... Well, he'd likely have Lucas, and Gabriel, Lara had said their names were, in the mansion in a flash, to grab her, when he got the spindle. While Kurtis would have liked to have said that he would kill the first man to even try to lay a hand on Lara, he knew he'd be no match for even one nephilim, much less two or three.

Needing something to do, he decided to take a quick run through the course before him, though he knew it by heart, by that point, just as Lara did. But the familiarity was a good thing right then. Something he could do easily, with no need for any real concentration, unless he wanted to polish up his gymnastics skills, to possibly make as fancy a show out of the course as Lara was able to, but he really didn't think that was necessary. He wasn't big on being fancy. As long as it could be done in a semi-simple way, it was good enough for him.

On his mind, more than anything else, was the small matter of his chirugai, and its odd attachment to Lara. He'd been telling the truth when he'd said his weapon would obey no commands but his own. His father had tried using it, on more than one occasion, to no avail, as had his grandfather, and his aunts and uncles... Most thought that he had been an incredibly clever boy, to have constructed his weapon in such a way that it was tied to him, a technique that no member of the Lux Veritatis line had been able to perfect in centuries.

But his father had been rather annoyed with the fact that his least favorite son had managed to accomplish what he himself had tried and failed to do. So, what had happened? Had the connection faded over time, or did his weapon somehow sense his connection with Lara? The second option, quite frankly, unnerved him...The idea that what he felt for Lara was so strong even his chirugai sensed it was... a tad scary. Then there was her dreams... He'd not sent out any call for help telepathically, he hadn't tried to speak to her through the chirugai, yet she'd somehow seen it all. Even a Lux Veritatis couldn't get into someone's head from that distance... And Lara didn't even have any powers...

Half-way through the course, he gained an audience. He could feel whoever it was, watching him, though he didn't bother to look. By the time he reached the end, he'd almost forgotten, until he noticed Zip standing there.

"What's up?" he asked, catching his chirugai with practiced ease.

"You're going to protect her, right?" Zip asked, crossing his arms, "Lara, I mean. She'll say she doesn't need protecting, but I think, in this case, she does."

"Lara doesn't seem the type to let anyone try to protect her," Kurtis replied, wondering where Zip was going with this, "What makes you think she'll let me?"

"Because, she trusts you, and, although she will likely never, ever, _ever_, say it, I'm fairly sure she loves you... And, you feel the same about her."

"Zip-"

"Oh, don't start... I seen the way ya'll look at each other. Lara ain't made moony-eyes at any guy like she has you in the entire time I've known her. I ain't heard of her accepting much in the way of help either. If she'll let anyone at least guard her back in this mess, it'll be you. "

"You realize that I had intended to watch her back whether or not she wanted me to, right?"

"Well, I still haven't sussed out whether or not we can trust you not to walk out when things start getting tough," he spoke as if they hadn't already started doing so.

"Then you don't know me very well, dude," Kurtis replied, running a hand through his messy hair, "I ain't walkin' out on Lara."

"Ah, so I was right."

"Zip, shut it, or I'll tell Alister you didn't win that money from him fairly."

--------------------

When she was finally able to sleep again, Lara dreamed. She dreamed of the day she'd lost her mother, of when her father had died, of the events in Egypt... It seemed as if every one of her worst memories was coming back to haunt her, and then some. Then the dreams started to change... She instead saw the friends she still had left, dying, in ways so gruesome she would never have thought it possible. When she awoke, just as the sun was peaking over the horizon, she was drenched in sweat, and she had tossed, and turned so much that her blankets were wrapped tightly around her lower body, so much so that she couldn't move. And most disheartening of all, she was alone.

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she'd hoped that Kurtis had returned, after his trip to the gym, once she'd fallen asleep. Hell, after that dream, she could have woken up to find Zip or Alister next to her, and been happy, simply for the assurance that it had all been a dream... That her family was still safe, and in one piece. Or, in one piece anyway. Safe was a matter of perspective, when you were close to Lara Croft. She sat up, and worked on disentangling herself from her covers, which seemed determined to hang on to her. It took her several minutes to get free, and she saw the evidence of just how tightly she had cocooned herself; the creases and wrinkles in the blankets had left imprints on her bare legs.

Considering the drenched state she'd awoken in, a shower was definitely in order, as well as a change of sheets. She could ask Winston to do that, when she went down to the pool for a swim. Such was the benefit of having one indoors... No matter the weather outside- clouds had covered the sun now, and sleet was turning the thin layer of snow on the ground into slush- she could still enjoy a good swim. Lara rolled out of bed, stretched, and headed for the sitting area of her room, her destination was the door on the other side that led to the bathroom. Something stopped her along the way, however. On her couch was the slumped forward, sleeping form of Kurtis.

She smirked. He was going to regret sleeping like that later. His neck and back would be killing him. Well, served him right, for sleeping there in the first place. Deciding it would be more fun to watch him suffer, and to get to taunt him later, Lara left him as he was, and continued on her way to the shower.

When she emerged, a robe over the bathing suit she wore, hair loose, and still wet, Kurtis had just awoken, and was rubbing the back of his neck, suggesting Lara had been right about the consequences of sleeping in such a position. She said nothing to him, other than good morning, and that she was going for a swim. She passed Winston on the way down to the pool, and declined his offer of breakfast. From his lack of worrying over her, no one had told him of what had been discovered earlier that morning, and Lara intended to keep him uninformed. As it was, Zip and Alister were going to be fretting any time she stepped out the door now, she didn't need Winston worrying himself to the point of a heartattack. So, she kept things normal, and simply asked if he could change her sheets, while she was downstairs.

She made a mental note, as she passed the library, to ask Alister if he could possibly find out if anyone in her family had developed any of the abilities typical of the Lux Veritatis. She didn't recall her mother ever doing anything strange, nor her grandparents on her mother's side. Nor had they ever mentioned anything strange. But then, her grandmother and grandfather had been rather stuck up, and were more likely to pretend that the strange occurrences didn't exist, rather than tell anyone about them... If anything had happened, that was. It was possible, she supposed, that the fifth line of the Lux Veritatis had vanished from the records, because of a loss of power... All on the list of things to ask Alister to look into.

First things first, though. Once she was done with her swim, she'd have to ask Zip if he'd made any progress on finding the little trinkets they were after. If he didn't have any news for her today, she was liable to shoot something, and she didn't like the idea of cleaning up a bullet-made mess, that early in the morning.

She didn't bother with climbing all the way up to the diving board this morning. Instead, when she reached the pool, she just discarded her robe, and dove into the luke-warm water. She resurfaced immediately, moving her hair out of her face. A quick dunk like that usually served to clear her head a bit, but it had no such effect this morning. Oh well... She'd come down for a swim, not just a quick dip. She didn't know how long she spent in the pool, before she decided she'd better get out, before her fingers started to turn all pruny.

Hands on the edge of the pool, Lara shoved herself upwards, into a handstand. She stayed that way for a moment, before carefully bending one leg down, until her foot touched the floor, close to her head... Uncomfortably close, some might have said, due to the flexibility it took to bend ones self in half. The other foot followed, along with her upper body.

"Very, very, _very_ sexy," said someone to her left, "Mind doin' it again?"

"As a matter of fact, I do mind," Lara replied, not bothering to see who it was. Even if she hadn't recognized the voice, only Kurtis would have made such a request.

"What if I were to say I was curious about what other neat little positions you can get yourself into, while wearin' that little get up?" said Kurtis, stepping towards her, blue eyes dark with lust.

Really wishing that they had time for such things as what she knew he was suggesting, but knowing they didn't, at the moment, anyway, Lara replied with, "I'd say that you really need this, and it's for your own good, to clear your head, you might say..."

Kurtis realized his mistake a moment too late. He'd put himself right in front of the pool... Lara moved too fast for him to try and stop her, dropping down, and swiping his feet out from under him, sending him toppling into the water.

"Bitch," her soaking victim muttered, as he climbed out of the pool.

"You needed it... Other wise you wouldn't have been in the proper mindset for listening to whatever Zip has to say... Go change, I'll see you down in Zip's little hidey-hole."

She turned to leave, but her sopping companion caught her arm, and pulled her back to him, "You'll owe me for that later."

"We'll see."

---------------

"Okay, Zip, _please_ tell me you have some good news," Lara said to her friend, leaning in the door way of his little computer room.

"Actually, as a matter of fact, I do," Zip replied, "I think I've located both of your little artifacts, but it's a matter of getting to them. The shears are in a tomb in Egypt, near Cairo."

"The hell they doin' in Egypt?" Kurtis asked, noting the look of dread that crossed Lara's features for a moment. It was clear she still hadn't quite gotten over what had happened to her. "Shouldn't they be in some nice temple in Greece?"

"They were," Zip replied, "But someone else found them... An archaeologist by the name of Jake Grace... He died last year in Egypt. Part of the tomb collapsed. They got his body out, but they never found his gear."

"And we know he had the shears with him how?" Lara inquired, not looking forward to seeing the pyramids and sands of Egypt again, any time soon, "Couldn't they be in his home?"

"According to what I found on him, he had them all the time... Said they were his lucky charm. I don't think he realized what he found. So, somewhere down in that tomb is his stuff, you just need to find it."

"Any idea why he was there in the first place," Kurtis asked, not sure why he even cared.

Zip shrugged, "He was babbling on to his family about having seen something in there before that reminded him of the markings on his 'lucky charm'. And you're lucky I got that info for you. I had to call the family to find it all out, and they weren't too happy with me asking questions... I eventually found someone willing to give me details on him though. Now, on to the spindle. That should be much easier to get too, actually, if you don't mind security systems. It's in the home of another archaeologist... Again, not someone who knows what he's found. Keeps it in his own private gallery. Unlike you, Lara, he doesn't only collect the mystical items. Keeps just about anything he finds that he likes. Anyway, his little gallery is pretty well secured, and I don't think you're going to convince him that you just want to borrow it for a while. He's in a mansion, built right into the Rockies. Hope you can do some rock climbing Kurtis."

"Where exactly is the mansion?" Lara spoke up, wondering if they even needed to climb.

Zip pointed to his computer screen, where a map of Colorado was shown, their destination marked by a small red dot.

"No need for climbing, in that area," said Lara, "There are all kinds of hiking trails through the woods, though, depending on how far up it is, it may be a better idea to ride, than to walk," she looked up at Kurtis, as Zip smirked, knowing whom she was intending on going to for help, "You can ride a horse can't you?"

Kurtis scoffed, "Duh. It's somethin' you learn, when you live in enough of the southern states, long enough," he smiled a bit, as if remembering something, "Ah, the week I spent in Dallas, Texas was incredibly fun. Painful, and I got more than my share of flyin' lessons, from a bad-tempered sorrel, but it was fun. Don't worry," he added noting her skeptical look, "I _can_ ride. Just keep me away from the ones that aren't quite saddle-broken."

"Ahem," Zip interrupted, "Which shall I arrange transport for first? Boring, and dull sand, or foul-tempered animals, and bitter cold... But I'm sure you'll think of a way to remedy that second one."

Throwing him a glare, Lara said, "Get us a flight to Denver, for tomorrow. We should be able to head out for the mansion by Friday, depending on how badly the jetlag hits us."

"As you wish."

---------------------

"Well, now shall we get her, Joachim?" Gabriel asked, more impatient than ever. "We know where the items are now, we've no more need to let her roam free, causing trouble."

"Patience, Gabriel, my friend," Karel replied, "We'll let them acquire the artifacts... No doubt Ms. Croft's curiosity will get the better of her, and she will go right where we want her too. She'll practically deliver herself for sacrificing. And then this will all have been worth it. "

--------------------

Next chapter next thursday, as always.

And happy early birthday to me... 16 tomorrow!


	8. Winning the Battle

There is practically no plot to this chapter, I warn you now :p

Hope you enjoy this'n... And Kudos to anyone who correctly identifies the movie that Zip takes the fake names from...

Chapter Eight

Winning The Battle

_P_acking was a rather short process, since, a) they wouldn't be staying long in Denver, just a day or two, three at most, and b) since it wasn't a tomb they were heading into, they really didn't need much in the way of gear. Seeing as how it was such a short process, Lara had begun to regret not having Zip find a flight that left that day, when she'd finished, around noon. But, it meant she had a last day to relax, in the relative safety of her own home. Zip always claimed that the security was enough to keep out so much as a cricket, yet she had lost count of the amount of times people had managed to break in. Granted, many of those people had been very determined, and if they didn't have mystical means of getting past her security, they had their own genius working with them. The ones who'd just been rather stupid, and incredibly lucky to get in, had been before she'd found Zip.

Belongings packed, and request to Alister for a little more family history made, Lara really had no idea how to spend her free afternoon. Being cooped up inside for so long, she really had no desire to visit the gym, considering that's what she'd done every morning, ever since returning from Greece, that morning being the exception. Something kept her from seeking out Kurtis, who was undoubtedly outside, smoking. She had tried, in his first two weeks of living under her roof, to get him to quit, but to no avail. She suspected part of his reluctance to quit was his unending amusement at annoying her. So, she had relented, and told him if he had to continue with the disgusting habit, he could do it outside in the cold. She had hoped that freezing his ass off would be a good motivation to quit. So far, it had only made his trips outdoors quicker, and only slightly less frequent.

But, she'd gotten herself off track, hadn't she? She'd been pondering her reluctance to go and find him, in one of the various little areas he often hid in. Their 'discussion' hadn't helped matters, for long. It had only made Lara see exactly what her problem was, and had allowed her to ignore it for a while. Knowing the problem, and fixing it, were two different matters. Though, no one could say she hadn't made some progress. She'd let down her defenses enough that she'd actually fallen asleep with her American friend. But, the lone-wolf side of her had its foot in the door again, and was slowly working to shove the other side away, and regain full control.

Something would have to be done about that. Or would it? Her reasons for giving Kurtis his rather undignified soaking earlier had been to get his mind back on what was important, right then. But, it wasn't just right then, was it? The fate of the world was hanging on their ability to think clearly, and to outsmart their enemies. Was there really time for any sort of romance? The emotionally detached lone-wolf in her smugly told her no, not then, not ever, while the other her, the one that Kurtis managed to bring to the surface told her yes, there was.

Tired of listening to the arguing inner voices, as if she were some schizophrenic, whose multiple consciences had very differing opinions, Lara headed for the library, to see if perhaps Alister had made any progress, in the hour he'd had to work. Surprisingly enough, he had. Good. She needed something to get her mind off of- oh, hell, there he was. As if knowing she was about to be told something interesting, Kurtis had appeared in the library door way, melting snowflakes still visible on him. So it had stopped with the sleet and moved on to snow. That wouldn't last long.

"I've found quite alot, actually," Alister was saying, flipping through a book. He'd informed her earlier that with the help of his computer he had found that they had several books that might help in the matter. "Nothing too detailed of course, but it should satisfy your curiosity for now. Alright, now, I can't be sure, but I think this may be the reason why your family disappeared from the Lux Veritatis records. When the great-great granddaughter of the fifth nephilim, since no amount of name changing could change what they were, turned sixteen, she proved to have no powers what-so-ever. This wasn't so troubling at first, of course, since the abilities were known to skip a generation, as was proof from the other four families. The woman's own child, the only one of her three to survive to sixteen, anyway, a girl, had no powers either. Nor did her daughter, and so on, and so forth. Oh, and apparently, the little jinx of women in your family having only one child, and always a girl, at that, started then... The tradition has kept up, all the way down to you."

Lara made a rather unlady-like sound that was somewhere between a scoff, and a snort of amusement, "And it'll end with me," she said. She wasn't the mother type. "Anything else?

"After three generations of producing no suitable members for the order, the Lux Veritatis stopped keeping track of your family, and the line sort of faded off. As far as I can tell, after they were removed, so to speak, from the order, they saw no reason to inform anyone, even the family, of what they used to be, explaining why you had no idea, and nor did your mother, or her mother before, that.. so on and so forth. Though according to some of these old records I found in here," he tapped the cover of a very large leather-bound book. It looked handmade, and when Alister opened it, she could tell that the pages had all been handwritten as well, "your family has never lost total contact with the Lux Veritatis...Though I don't think even they knew it..."

"And that is?" Kurtis asked, gesturing towards the book, curious about what Alister meant.

"Well, this book is more a journal type thing... I guess. It was actually hidden, behind a bunch of the other volumes I was looking for, it fell on my head, when I pulled them off the shelves, yesterday. Couldn't help the thought that it wanted to be found... Silly, I know. But, I read it, after I learned of your connection to the Lux Veritatis... According to this journal, which you may want to read for yourself... the last to write in it was your great-grandmother, there were more than a few little romances with men from the Lux Veritatis... Of course, it seemed that the women were oblivious to their lovers' heritage, for it's never mentioned in the book, but when I noticed that the last name was always the same, I looked it up, and of course, it was one of the Lux Veritatis lines. DeCombel."

There was a sharp intake of breath, from Kurtis, as Alister went on to say, "Which, happens to be _your_ real surname, Kurtis."

Lara thought about this, for a moment. So, she wasn't the first woman in her family to have been involved with the Lux Veritatis... Or more specifically, someone in Kurtis' own family. She'd known Trent hadn't been his last name. "Coincidence..." she finally said, "Just a coincidence..." Kurtis gave her a look that told her that his opinion of this was that it certainly was NOT just a coincidence.

"Coincidence or not," Alister muttered, "It is interesting none the less, though, all the relationships were ill-fated... Never lasted very long either..."

While Kurtis grimaced, hearing this, it didn't phase Lara. She had long since removed the notion from her head that she was like her family, ancient relatives or otherwise, and she hoped that other people realized this as well. And from what he had told her, Kurtis wasn't much like his own family, either. "Thank you, Alister... I appreciate the information."

---------------------------

The flight was tense, as it was the first time Kurtis and Lara had been in close contact since Alis had informed them of his and Lara's family histories. It had bothered Kurtis, hearing what Alis'd had to say. He, like Lara, wasn't much of one to believe in fate, and destiny, but, this was a little too much of a coincidence to be ignored. Not only was Lara descended from the Lux Veritatis, but somehow, many of her ancestors had somehow gotten involved with his own. It was "hinky" as his sister might have said. He smiled a little, remembering his sister, Katalina. There was something with his family and K names, it seemed, for his brother had been Kelley. He'd gotten on well, with Kat, but not so well with his brother. Still, when they had been murdered...

That was ancient history... No use dwelling on the past, when it couldn't be changed. Eckhardt was dead, their murders had been avenged. There was nothing more that could be done. Right then, he had other things to worry about anyway. Namely what he and Lara were going to do if Karel caught them, and just as importantly, to Kurtis anyway, what he was going to do to get himself and Lara back on good terms... Lara had been doing well, until one little bit of news had started setting up her walls again. He'd gotten into her thoughts, a few times since then... She was putting the walls up this time, to make herself seem stronger, less fragile, in the hopes that no one would think she needed help... In doing so, the part of her that liked to be alone had taken over again.

But, hopefully that would take a turn for the better when they reached their hotel in Denver... They'd gotten a little more info from Zip, and regardless of whether or not jetlag hit them badly, they couldn't make a go for the spindle until Friday. The mansion would be empty, save for the few men the owner had hired as security, Friday night, which gave them time to use the daylight hours to get up the mountain, and be to their destination by nightfall. Lara said they were going up on horseback, since amazingly enough, the snowfall had actually been rather light that winter. It would still likely feel like hell had frozen over, but, they wouldn't be slowed by the snow. After their hike down from the House of Fate, Kurtis would be glad if he never saw another snowflake again, after this winter was over.

The plane landed after what seemed to be an eternity, and when they finally got outside the airport, Kurtis almost found himself wishing he were back in England. Suddenly, the cold weather he had complained about in Lara's home, seemed like nothing. He was sure it was actually probably warmer here, by a bit, but the elevation, coupled with a light drizzle of rain, and a strong north wind to make the rain get enough momentum that when it hit him, it felt like someone was pelting him with needles, it felt worse. Shivering, as he and Lara headed for the car Lara rented, Kurtis began to form plans on how to re-break though Lara's defenses. _Shouldn't be so hard_ Kurtis thought, as they spotted the car,_ she already half-wants to just let herself go as it is._ With that glimmer of hope in mind, Kurtis put all his concentration into ignoring the way the man walking a little ways away was looking at Lara, before he broke something... Likely something on the man's body.

--------------

The hotel, The Red Lion, was nice. Nothing too fancy, but nice, all the same. Zip, being his oh-so-funny self, had booked them a single room, and, according to the slip of paper he'd given Lara, which she had forgotten, until she realized she needed the names- the reason being was she had agreed not to read it until they arrived-, had booked it under the names Selena and Mike Corvin. Kurtis found this immensely funny. Lara made a note to make sure she made no more agreements like that with Zip.

On their way up to the room, Kurtis was still chuckling over Zip's choice of names, "Sorry, but I saw what he got those names from not too long ago," he explained, when Lara gave him an odd look.

Lara shrugged, "Well, maybe Zip can have you watch movies with him, now, instead of me," she said, "Since as far as I've seen, you've the same tastes."

Kurtis smirked, "Kate Beckinsale in tight leather makes all men have the same taste in movies, even if it is only once."

Lara rolled her eyes, and muttered something along the lines of "men", as she opened the door to their room. Damn. No couch. She wasn't sleeping on the floor, and as much as she dreaded what might happen if they slept in the bed, together, she didn't want Kurtis on the floor either. Well, she'd gotten herself into this, when she let Zip make the arrangements. Lesson learned.

--------------

A hot dinner, and two showers later, the tense atmosphere had all but evaporated, and Lara and Kurtis were actually sitting in comfortable silence. Lara was stretched out on the bed, feet up on her pillow, reading a book that she'd brought along, while Kurtis was leaning against the headboard, flipping through channels on the tv. He finally found something to watch- an episode of CSI he'd seen before, where the team was given twenty-four hours to solve a rape/murder case- and changed positions, so that he was stretched out, like Lara. Pretending to be concentrating on the tv, he took a gander at her thoughts.

_Stop it... Just wait, just wait. Once this is all over. We sort-of talked, that's enough, for now. Once Karel is dead..._

Arguing with herself again. Kurtis refrained from shaking his head, and sent a thought to her... _Once Karel is dead? 'Once Karel is dead' what?_. He saw Lara jump, out of the corner of his eye, and glare at him, but he kept on with the charade of being absorbed in watching the tv.

_Once Karel is dead... We can sort this out... Whatever 'this' is._ Lara thought back, going back to her book. _For now we need to stay focused on our job..._

_We can't work together if we're so tense around each other we can't even look at one another. _She didn't want to resist him this time, and he could already tell that her hastily put up defenses were crumbling. Kurtis flipped over on his side, and made Lara look up at him. "Don't make me repeat everything I said at your mansion, Croft... I think we've been enough of a broken record as it is."

Lara's lips tried to curve upwards in a small smile, but she kept herself in control, "If it helps, I meant it, about wanting to work things out, for real, once Karel was dealt with."

"It helps a bit," Kurtis replied with as much of a shrug as he could manage while propped up on one elbow, "But you offering no resistance when I do what I've been planning to since yesterday would help more." Before she could stop him, Kurtis caught her lips in a soft, gentle kiss.

When he broke the kiss, he could tell he had won the battle for good... A fact that was proved when Lara spoke, "I'd like to inform you that I don't make a habit of giving in so easily."

Kurtis read her thoughts one last time, as he shrugged again, _I knew no good would come of sharing the bed..._ He smirked, at that, and kissed her again. There weren't going to be many coherent thoughts, after that, he was sure. Deepening the kiss, he buried his fingers in Lara's hair, to pull her as close to him as he possibly could. Her book slid off the bed, and hit the floor with a thud, though, neither ever heard it. Using to his advantage his higher position, Kurtis simultaneously rolled Lara over, and moved on top of her, without breaking the kiss. When they finally had to breathe, he heard Lara mutter "that's cheating..."

"Want to see cheatin' do you?" he asked with a sly smirk, kissing her once again, hands roaming her body, to caress her breasts, before moving down, the fingers of one hand slipping under the waistband of her cotton pants. Were his mouth not otherwise occupied, he might have smirked, feeling his partner tremble beneath him as his fingers reached their destination...

---------------

Lara woke early. Very early, in fact, considering last night's activities. She smiled a bit, remembering. If that hadn't shut up her lone-wolf voice, she didn't know what would. She stretched, with a quiet groan, careful not to hit the still sleeping form next to her. Though she may as well not have bothered... If she wanted to get up, and get a shower before they had to get to work on studying the layout of the mansion they would be breaking into that night, she'd either have to wake her lover, or somehow teleport to the bathroom. The reason being; Kurtis' arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, holding her close to him, giving her no way to get up without disturbing him. Finally, his grip slackened, and Lara thought for a moment that she might escape, but the moment she started to move, Kurtis' arms wrapped tightly around her again, and yanked her back to where she had been before. She knew he was awake by this point, for she felt his lips on her shoulder.

"You going to let me up?" Lara asked.

"Nope," came Kurtis' reply, his warm breath on her chilled skin making her shiver a bit.

"Why not?"

"Punishment."

"For?"

"For the scratches I can feel in my damn back," was Kurtis' reply, as if it were a perfectly normal thing to say, "And the nasty bitemark on my shoulder. Violent enough?"

Lara laughed at him, "I can make it up to you later. For now, up. Work to do."

"Damn, woman, do you ever switch off?" Kurtis asked, releasing her, "Other than when you're completely worn out, anyway," he added with a cocky smirk.

Lara pretended not to notice, "Not when the world is at stake, no. Come on, get up."

Kurtis looked at the clock beside the bed. The red numbers told him that by Denver time it was two-thirty in the morning. Shit, what time was that in England?

"It's about nine-thirty," Lara informed him, as if reading his mind, as she grabbed a change of clothes, and headed into the bathroom, for her shower, "So no complaints that it's too early to be getting up. "

---------------

Dawn- or, as close to it as it could be when clouds made it look the same shade of grey as any other part of the day- found them leaning over blueprints of the place they were breaking into, trying to find the best way in. Zip was on the phone, which had been put on speaker, helping them make their decision, and explaining the security system they were going to try and get by without setting it off. That was the plan, anyway, but plans didn't always work out right, a lesson Prague, and the Strahov had taught them both well. Lara was running her index finger along the path that seemed to be the safest, quickest, and most security-free route. She stopped at the depiction of the gallery, and tapped her finger against the paper impatiently, as if she couldn't quite make up her mind about what to do.

"This way seems best," she muttered to herself, "But, this," she ran her finger along an alternate path, one that would take extreme finesse to get through without setting off all kinds of alarms, "may be quicker, and easier to get into, to begin with."

Kurtis raised an eyebrow, and said into the speaker on the phone, "Zip... Do you see what she's talking about." When Zip informed him that he did, he continued, "She's forgetting that I'm not great with the gymnastics act she pulls off in the face of lasers and tripwires."

"Oh, you'll be fine," Lara said, not looking up from the blueprints, "You got into the Louvre didn't you?"

"that was using a little bit of my so-called Jedi Mind Tricks, to turn the alarm systems off, but I can't do that with this place, since I have to SEE what I'm moving, in order to move it."

That reminded Lara... She had been meaning to ask him how Karel had gotten him to talk, ever since he'd mentioned it, the day she'd saved him. She'd have to ask him on their trip up the mountain. Then there'd be no way he could dodge the question, unless he outright refused to answer. She went back to defending her choice of a way in, asking Zip for his opinion on the matter. Zip, of course, was of little help, since he seemed rather keen on staying out of the argument. Somewhere along the way, none of them were really sure where, it was decided that they would get in Lara's way.

"So," Zip asked slyly once the matter was settled, "Why were you two in bed so late?

------------

"Ya sure ya wanna be ridin' innis weather Lara?" the short, plump, red-headed woman that Lara had introduced as Janine, said, holding the reins of two rather large horses. Kurtis had to struggle not to chuckle at her thick southern accent.

"Quite sure, Janine," Lara replied, "That is if you think Ricochet and Gunpowder can handle the cold." She gestured to the buckskin, Ricochet, and the blue roan, Gunpowder, behind the woman.

The suggestion that her quarter horses couldn't make it up the mountain in the cold sealed the deal, "I assure ya, Lara, these two're th' best I got, onnis ranch, an' ya can be sure that th' cold ain't gonna affect 'em none at all, 'cep' fer maybe makin' 'em a bit irritated."

Kurtis didn't like the sound of that. Especially if he got landed on the roan, whom was already fidgeting nervously. Had been since Janine had provided them with the scarce weapons they needed. For a horse named Gunpowder, he certainly didn't like guns much. Though Kurtis didn't much care for the pistol he'd been given. He wanted his boran x, but, while he was able to sneak his chirugai through airport security, his custom pistol wasn't as easy to get away with. Lara hadn't even bothered trying to bring her own weapons, stating instead that her contact could easily provide them with firearms. And indeed she had. Twin pistols, as normal, for Lara, and a single, larger Browning 9mm for Kurtis.

"Then yes, I'm sure... This is important. Pity, stealing from a fellow archaeologist, but, it's got to be done. "

"World endin', or is it an artifact that could do th' man harm," apparently the thought of theft wasn't bothering Janine that much. Though she did narrow her brilliant green eyes for a moment, as she listed the third possibility, "or are ya jus' takin' it 'cause ya reckon ya can?"

"First one," Lara said, with an idle wave of her hand, "Again."

"Remind me again," Kurtis asked, when they were finally on their way, "Why we have to ride?"

"One, I enjoy it, two, it's faster than hiking up, three, no one will hear us approaching, and four, we can take a trail up that won't take near as long as trying to drive all the way up, by way of the road"

-------------

Kurtis felt a bit jealous at the ease with which Lara settled into the motion of the creature beneath her. When he'd said he knew how to ride, he hadn't been lying, but he hadn't exactly said he was the greatest horseman on the planet. It had been years since the last time he'd even seen a horse, and he was having trouble adjusting to his feet not being on the ground as they moved. At least he hadn't gotten the roan. Lara'd had to struggle with him a bit at first, until Gunpowder had finally accepted that his rider was the one in control, not him. Ricochet, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. The buckskin was well-mannered, laid-back, and all around friendly.

They were on a trail, heading upward, through taller trees than had any right to exist. As Lara had said, the snowfall was relatively light. A foot, in most places, two, or three, in drifts. They were halfway up, by then, so they still had a while to go. They'd ridden in silence, for the most part, save for a few muttered curses here and there, when commenting on the cold. Lara had looked like she wanted to say something, since they'd left Janine's, though Kurtis hadn't gotten into her head to find out what. She'd say whatever it was, when she got up the courage.

"When you were being tortured by Karel," Lara finally asked, looking at Kurtis, "You said he used a nasty little mind trick to get you to tell him where the House of Fate was... What did he do, exactly?"

"He... he showed me things I'd rather not really see happen," Kurtis replied, looking determinedly at Ricochet's ears.

"That bad?" there was a hint of sympathy in her voice, but mostly, it was full of curiosity. To show she expected him to tell her, no matter what, she pulled her headset off, and tucked it into a pocket in her coat.

"Yeah, that bad... " Kurtis sighed, removing his own headset, ignoring the protests coming from the men on the other end. May as well tell her. Another sigh, and he began to tell her what Karel had shown him...

----------------------

Next chapter ya find out just what Karel can do with yer head mwuhahahaha- -coughhackwheeze- ...Gotta work on that laugh.

Now... push the little button that says "Go" next to the option "submit review" and ye shall receive many virtual gifts!...and Rum! (sorry... I've still got too much POTC in my head...)


	9. Thieves in the Night

First off... Sooooooo sorry that this is late. Stupid site wouldn't let me upload anything until now... So I devoted my day to setting up a new RolePlaying game... Was hell, lemme tell ya. Stargate SG-1, right, so I was having to remember all these planet names, along with their corresponding SGC numbers... No walk in the park. Coming up with a suitable gaming style isn't easy either. 

But enough of that... On with the story, enjoy chapter nine!

Chapter Nine

Thieves in the Night

_"K_arel, as I said, is a nasty piece of work, and has a cruel sense of humor," said Kurtis, still not looking at Lara, "When I wouldn't tell him where the temple was, at first it was just torture, then when that wouldn't work, he moved on to playin' around in my damned head, bringin' back old memories that I would have liked to have kept buried. Finally... After he'd been threatenin' to do so for a while, he brought you in," he held up a hand to stop her protests that Karel had never touched her. "I know, now of course, it wasn't really you, but I thought it was, then... Anyway, he brought 'you' in. I've learned to tell what's a nephilim, and what's not..."

_Karel stood in front of him, an angry-looking Lara tied up in the chair across the room. Any thoughts that this was possibly a trick left his mind, when his gaze met Lara's briefly. If this WAS a trick, it was a damn good one... _

Lara knew as well. The eyes. When Karel had turned into Kurtis, in the Strahov, it had frightened her, true, almost to the point that she wondered if there was really a Kurtis Trent at all. Then she remembered his eyes. Kurtis' were full of life, and passion... Karel's were soulless, empty. She nodded, signaling him to continue, as she nudged Gunpowder with a booted heel to make him pick up the pace a bit. He'd been lagging behind.

"Whatever the 'you' was, it wasn't nephilim. Karel made me watch while they tortured 'you'...For hours."

_Kurtis tried to turn his head away, so he couldn't see what was happening, but one of the bastard's lackeys held his head in place, forcing him to keep his eyes open by way of a rather sharp screw being driven into his back, every time he so much as blinked. He wanted to tell Karel where the temple was... Had, since he'd seen Lara, but she kept telling him not to. To not give Karel what he wanted. And every time she did, the nephilim only hurt her more, though the woman never uttered even the slightest gasp of pain. The tomb raider was certainly doing better than he was... Weeks of such treatment had left him unable to resist crying out. Every cry that Lara held in, Kurtis somehow let out, as he watched the bruises form on her lovely face, from Karel's blows... Or the blood form pools on the floor, as it dripped from her body..._

"God, Lara, by the time he'd finished..."

_Lara sat slumped in her chair, trembling, blood-soaked, bruised, broken... Her auburn-brunette hair was matted and sticky with her own blood, her fingers all sat at odd angles, each having been broken at least once by the creature that circled her, smiling like a madman. Her breathing was raspy, and blood ran from her nose, and down her chin, as she breathed, telling Kurtis the cracks he'd heard before, when Karel'd had her on the floor, kicking her, had been ribs breaking... And the broken bones had punctured her lungs. She raised her head to look at him, her face was barely recognizable under the bruising. She shook her head, slightly, seeing that he was ready to give in..._

"When the not-you finally broke, and screamed, and cried... I told Karel where the damn temple was."

_So, Kurtis still said not a word, despite his heart warning him that if he let Lara die, he was going to regret it for the rest of his life... Then, Karel took Lara's head in his hands, and closed his eyes. It was only seconds, before whatever he was doing had an effect on the woman. She screamed. It was a truly bone-chilling sound. Whether the scream was of physical pain, or emotional, he wasn't sure, he just knew he wanted Karel to stop whatever he was doing. _

_To just leave Lara alone. After what seemed like an eternity, Karel opened his eyes, and took his hands away from Lara. The woman fell forward, broken hands over her ears, as she sobbed. Her entire frail body shook, as she cried, and screamed. Karel had to have shown her something... something awful... The sight before him now, more than anything else he'd seen in the hours of torture, tore at his heart... _

_Karel moved to do what-ever-it-was, again, pausing only briefly to see if Kurtis would speak. The Lux Veritatis warrior hesitated a moment too long, and Lara let out that heartwrenching scream again._

_Kurtis shouted at the nephilim to stop. Eyes on the crying woman before him, he told Karel what he wanted to know. Where the temple was. His brain asked him why he was doing this... Giving potentially dangerous items to Karel on a silver platter. Because of Lara. Because to not tell only caused her more pain. He hadn't spoken before, because she had remained strong... Seemed even Miss Croft had her limits. Grinning evilly, now that he had the information he wanted, Karel pulled a small knife from seemingly out of nowhere. Kurtis' eyes widened as he plunged the knife into an unsuspecting Lara's chest... into her heart. _

"Then it all just disappeared... You, the blood that was everywhere. All just went poof. Karel was still there of course, smilin' like a chesire cat. Took me a minute to realize it hadn't been real, and that I'd given up information that was rather important, considering... Hated myself afterwards, for fallin' for it. For tellin' Karel where that temple was, for givin' in."

_Kurtis struggled against the bonds holding him in place, as Lara's limp, lifeless body slid from the chair, to hit the floor... Blood pooled around her, as her lifeless eyes stared at Kurtis..._

_Then it was gone. He blinked, and it was all gone. The blood, the tools Karel had used, Lara's body, it was all gone. It took a moment before the reality hit him. He'd allowed himself to be tricked into talking. True, it was a convincing illusion, but it was still just that, an illusion. And he'd fallen for it. Had he not been tied to a chair, he'd have promptly slammed his head into a wall, for having been so stupid. _

_And yet, he'd do it again, he realized. If there was even the slightest chance it was real, the slightest chance that information he had could help Lara, he'd do it again in a heartbeat. _

A moment before he nudged Ricochet into a fast trot, Lara heard him mutter, "And scariest of all was, I did it for you."

---------------

They arrived at their destination at exactly the right time. Hidden by the trees, and the coming night, Lara and Kurtis- and through the cams, Zip and Alister- watched as the archaeologist, Trevor Felman, got into his SUV, along with his wife, and two small children. Ignoring Kurtis' muttered complaints about not having been able to drive up, Lara waited for the vehicle to start on it's way down the mountain before she spoke.

"Right, Zip, how many guards are there tonight?"

"According to the cameras, only three, but they're in potentially problematic areas."

"Like where?" Kurtis asked. He still wasn't used to working as part of a team, after having been working alone for so long.

"Like right in front of your entrance route, and your escape route, and the third is in the gallery its self. And pardon me, there's four. There's always one in the monitor room."

"Oh...Joy..."

"No problem," Lara said, countering Kurtis' rather sarcastic response, "The great and powerful Oz, here," she looked at Kurtis, so her friends could see who she meant, though she was sure they already knew, "Can take care of them."

"Me, why?"

"Levitate something, and drop it on their heads, simple enough. Won't know what hit them. Neither will anyone watching on the security monitors, thanks to Zip."

Sighing, Kurtis muttered a few obscenities under his breath, as he and his partner left their mounts where they wouldn't be seen, and creeped closer to the house. Mansion was more the word for it. It was built right into the mountain, two and a half of its four sides, hidden by the rocks. The owner was either very stupid, or very confident in the work of his security guards, for there wasn't so much as a fence around the place, making the job of the two thieves slinking around in the dark, all the easier. Just as Zip had said, there was a guard right in front of their way in. The way in being a hidden door, in the side of the building, that opened into a crawlspace, that led up into the ceiling of the upper floor, where their target rested. Judging from the age of the place, Lara guessed the passage had been made as a way of either smuggling things in, or out, or both.

What its past purposes had been made little difference. Tonight it was being used as a way to get into the place undetected. Having agreed before arriving that they would do as little speaking as was possible, to avoid someone hearing them, Lara knew Kurtis was in her head. So, she told him what to do, via mental connection. Knock the guard out, pure and simple. It was simple, actually. There was a stack of bricks by the wall, right behind the guard. He never even knew he'd been hit, for the moment the brick Kurtis had levitated until it reached about a foot over his head, struck him, he dropped like a-...well, brick.

Needing no words or thoughts to say what was next, both Lara and Kurtis made their way to the wall, looking for the door. Kurtis found it. It was hidden behind a rather dead bush, just to the left of where the formerly conscious guard had been standing. Calling it a door was generous. Just a bit of wood with hinges added, and a fraying old rope as a handle. It opened with a creak, when Kurtis tugged on the rope, and said rope broke, and disentgrated in his hand. Least they knew no one bothered to use this enough to have replaced the rope... The crawlspace was just that... Maybe three-and-a-half, four feet at most, from floor to ceiling, and it was dark, and dusty, and, in contrast to the air outside, uncomfortably warm.

Sneezing, Lara pulled off her coat, as it would have been a hindrance, for what she'd have to be doing later. Not wanting to leave it behind, she stuffed it in her backpack. Kurtis had left his tied to Ricochet's saddle. He considered asking Lara why she hadn't had the sense to do the same, but thought better of it. In that small of an area, he'd have no way to escape her wrath.

Two near misses, from falling through the floor of the little space, and several sneezing fits, from them both -(due to all the dust and cobwebs)-, later, they were above the second floor. Unfortunately, the crawlspace didn't go all the way to the gallery... Just to the hallway before it. Lara dropped down first, as always, silent as a cat. Kurtis followed, with an only slightly more noisy entrance than his counterpart. This was why Kurtis hadn't wanted to come in this way. The laser hallway. The keypad to turning the lasers off was on the other side of said lasers, making disabling them before they had to go through a bit of a problem. Still, it would be interesting to see what Lara was going to do to get past them. As had been planned ahead of time, he used his farsee to search ahead for the pass code. He found it on the desk of the owner 32-23-42-16.

Going back to his body, he informed Lara of the code. She nodded, and moved to stand directly in front of the first laser beam. She stepped high, to get over it, and as she brought her other foot to the ground, she ducked, to avoid the beam that was running back and forth. She crawled under the next few, not more than an inch of clearance between her head and the red beams. She jumped over the next, with ease. So on Lara went, until she came to the final set. The main reason for Kurtis not liking this hall.

The group of beams in front of Lara formed a chain-link-like pattern, and left no room to go under, around, or through. The only way past was to climb one of the stone columns that stood at even intervals along the wall. From the column, she could grab the wooden beam that ran down the center of the ceiling, and simply go _over_ the grid. Before she started her climb, Lara took a breather.

Climbing was the easy part. It would be succeeding in getting safely over the lasers that would be the problem. At the top of the column, she reached out, and grabbed the wooden beam. There was just enough room between the ceiling, and the top of the beam for her fingers, allowing her a good hold. The clearance between the ceiling, and the laser grid, however, not as much as she had thought. Grumbling, she let go of the beam with one hand, and tucked her braid into the back of her black sweater. Couldn't have her hair screwing things up. A solution to the space problem in mind, Lara shimmied sideways, until her feet hung only inches away from the laser grid. She swung forward, pressing her feet firmly against the wall, before walking up it a bit, until her entire body was high enough that she could get over the grid.

She inched over, little by little, struggling to keep her feet against the wall. For a moment she thought she might get across with no mishaps. But then, that would be too much to ask wouldn't it? She was almost over, when one foot slipped. Even from all the way down the hall, she heard Kurtis' sharp intake of breath, as they both waited for her to fall. But only the one foot slipped, the toe of her boot hanging not even an inch from the top of the lasers. Far too close for comfort.

Taking a deep breath, Lara brought her foot back up against the wall, and continued, for a moment, before it was safe to to drop down on the other side. The drop was actually too far of a drop, but she didn't want to waste time climbing down. Didn't hurt that much, at least, just a momentary flare of pain through her feet, up her legs, and spine. Pausing a moment, waiting for the pain to subside, Lara reminded herself of the pass code. Code typed into the keypad, the lasers deactivated with a low buzz, allowing Kurtis free passage down the hall. For a moment, not even a second, really, Lara found herself thinking that if it had just been her, there would have been no reason to deactivate them in the first place, and she could have just gone right through the door, instead of waiting.

Unfortunately, that split second was enough for Kurtis to catch the gist of her thoughts. She expected a glare, or even a few nasty thoughts, when Kurtis reached her. Instead, all she got was; _Hey, I ain't used to workin' with someone else like this either... Oh and for the record, I'm not an expert gymnast. _

Lara rolled her eyes at the last bit, and with a confident smirk to rival even Kurtis', she opened the door that led into the gallery. The case holding the spindle would be in the center of the room, amidst all the other displays. The problem with getting it out? If anyone so much as breathed on the case while the alarms were activated, said alarms would go off, alerting anyone within hearing distance of their presence. So, the first order of business? To get rid of the guard, and to shut down the alarms.

The guard in here was female, though it seemed Kurtis didn't care, for she was taken care of in much the same fashion, only with no brick this time. Instead, the tool was a rather large book, dropped on the woman's head.

"Oooh, nice shot!" Zip said in their ears.

Neither Lara nor Kurtis replied, wanting to keep quiet, in case anyone was around that Zip hadn't noticed on the security monitors he was no doubt looking at right then. Shutting off the alarm was easy enough. All they needed was the keycard that the guard had clipped to the front of her shirt, and all alarms were turned off. Simple. Now to find the item they were after.

It didn't take long, for all the the gallery was large. Had the man who'd collected all these artifacts been a collector of the mystical items, it might have taken longer, for Lara might have been tempted to take a few extra things for her own collection, but most of what was there was broken pottery, ancient tools, maybe a few idols- nothing but copies of originals that Lara already had- stone tablets with worn down writing on them. The normal things in which Lara had no interest.

Both she and her partner had to admit, the spindle was a little underwhelming. It was beautiful, for such a simple tool, true, with ornate designs carved into the wood, as well as a few words, that had been worn down over the years until they were impossible to read, but still, for something that supposedly held the power to create life, it didn't hold an aura of power and mystery, like many of the objects that Lara had collected. She could see why this tool had been mistaken for an every day ancient spinning tool... It looked the part.

Now came another job for Kurtis. The top of the case could be opened, but the top was too high to reach, and Lara didn't fancy having to break the case. It might draw the attention of the third, and fourth guards, before she and Kurtis were ready to deal with them. So, all that had to be done was to move the top of the case, then levitate the spindle out through the opening. It was all too easy, really. The little wooden object floated neatly into Lara's waiting hand, as Kurtis simply leaned against another case, as if he wasn't doing a thing.

_Oh the cleverness of you_, Lara thought, tucking the item into her backpack.

_Yes, the cleverness of me, indeed. _

"Uh... Guys... " said Zip, "We've a slight problem... I just came across something you should know about... All the artifacts are on pressure plates..."

"No problem," said Kurtis, "We already took care of the alarm..."

"Yeah, the one for the cases not-" he was cut off by the blaring sound of an alarm going off, "-that one..."

"_Shit_," Lara spat, "Well, have to give Mr. Felman props for his thorough security... Let's go. We'll get out the quick way, no need for stealth now...which way are they coming from Zip?"

"Ah, just go back the way you came, and you'll be good," Zip replied. Lara could hear him typing like mad, "They're coming from the opposite direction, so you should beat them out of the place, no problem. They'll never even see you, if you hurry."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Kurtis said, "Let's get out of here, the alarm is giving me a headache." Without further ado, he grabbed Lara's hand, and hauled her towards the exit.

They exited through the front door of the mansion several minutes both laughing at the images their minds conjured up, upon thinking of what the guards might look like, when they saw a whole display case, no evidence of anyone having hung from the ceiling to get to it, the alarms deactivated, and no apparent forced entry.

Surely their confusion would be priceless. And best of all would be them wondering just how it was that they hadn't even seen anyone come in, on the cameras... After all, Zip would make sure that no one would ever know the cameras had been tampered with, nor would anyone be able to find who'd done the tampering, if by some miracle, it was discovered.

Oh well, too bad they wouldn't get to see. Though Zip had, for he was howling with laughter, in their ears, commenting on how he'd never seen a more confused pair of men in his life, as they checked the house.

--------------

"So one down," said Kurtis, tossing the spindle back and forth in his hands, once they were back in their hotel room, a few hours later, after they'd both showered- separately, despite Zip's commentary, when Lara had told him it would be a while before she could call him, and Alister- "One to go. What're we gonna do with 'em when we have the shears? We keep 'em, and Karel will certainly come after us again."

Lara shrugged, "Haven't thought that far ahead yet," she replied, though her thoughts wandered to the large double doors in the House of Fate... The ones that led to the chamber of Fate, "But I think these are some of the few things I just want to put back where they belong, and be done with them."

"Back where they belong? As in, back to Greece, in that temple?"

"More specifically, in the chamber with the warning that if you go in, you'll be erased from existence," Lara said it, as if it were as normal as taking a walk through the park, "Maybe that will discourage Karel from going after them."

"It should discourage _us_ from putting them there to begin with," Kurtis muttered.

"Well, if you don't want to go in, I'll do it alone," her tone was teasing, but it still caused Kurtis to grimace a bit.

"Perhaps I should, if you work so much better on your own," he hadn't meant to snap. He hadn't even meant to say it aloud. He didn't even know why her earlier thoughts were just now getting to him...

Lara winced, "I didn't mean that," Kurtis snapped to attention... Was _she_ apologizing, when he was the one who'd spoken without thinking? "What you heard earlier, about it being easier alone... Well, alright so I did mean it. But that doesn't mean that's what I want. This whole thing just takes getting used to..."

"Yeah... Kinda does, doesn't it?" knowing things were going to be uncomfortable for at least the rest of the night, Kurtis put them back on the track of their job, "So, going to call Zip?"

----------------

Gabriel wasn't at all happy. First, they needed to wait, for the mortals to find the locations of the artifacts, and to figure out the meaning of the prophecy. Well, they'd done that. Then, they couldn't just grab the woman, kill the male, get the items, and be done with it. No, they had to let the mortals get the artifacts, and take them to the proper destination before they interfered. Gabriel had never been a patient man, and he was even less so of late, with the rebirth of his brethren drawing nearer, and just waiting for the damned humans to work things out was taking far too long.

And now, worst of all, Joachim had him playing the little mind games with them..."To keep them unsuspecting of our plans" the older nephilim had told him, when he'd given him his current job. Well, Gabriel would do his job... Though who was to say what would happen if the humans put up too much of a fight? His hand could _slip_ while he was "scaring" them. The Lux Veritatis could easily end up accidentally dead, and of course, if he were dead, why not go ahead and take the woman? Take her to Joachim, and force her to get the shears for them, before they killed her...

Gabriel smirked, as he stood next to the two sleeping forms.

Yes, accidents could happen.

And yes, accidents _would_ happen.

Perhaps this job wasn't so bad after all.

------------------

Gabriel's being a naughty boy...


	10. Scare Tactics

Chapter Ten! I have mixed feelings on this one... Sometimes I like it, others I think "What the hell was I thinking when I wrote this?"

Chapter TenScare Tactics

Kurtis couldn't banish the uneasy feeling he had. He'd awoken with the strange sensation that he was being watched, and not by anything friendly, and even as the morning wore on, and he and Lara were preparing to leave, he still kept glancing over his shoulder, expecting something or someone to be there.

"Why so twitchy?" Lara finally asked, shoving her clothes into her bag, "Anytime something moves outside the window, or a door slams somewhere, you look like you're expecting some kind of monster to show up."

Kurtis raised an eyebrow at her, "I am, actually. I can't shake the feelin' that someone's watchin' us."

Lara only shrugged nonchalantly, as if it didn't matter that he could very well have been right. Prepared to start scolding her for that, he almost didn't hear her voice sounding in his head. _Don't even think about it. I'm trying to refrain from letting whoever is doing the watching, if anyone, know that we're aware of their presence. _If that was her plan, she was certainly doing an amazing job of it. Kurtis shrugged, and let the subject drop, though he kept on alert. Couldn't have their stalker sneaking up on them.

--------------

Lara drummed her fingers against the steering wheel, anxiously, as she drove. Just as she and Kurtis had been about to depart from their hotel, Janine had called. Or at least, she thought it was Janine. The woman was babbling far too fast, and with her accent, it made her difficult to understand. The most Lara had been able to gather was that something had the woman spooked, and considering that this was Janine, Lara doubted it was a mean-tempered mountain lion, or some other mountain critter.

So, she and Kurtis were going to check it out. They would likely be late for their flight back to England, but that was something that could easily be fixed, later on. If Karel had sent some of his goons after them, and they had found out who'd helped her, and her partner, then she doubted whatever would be done to Janine could be so easily remedied. Still tapping her fingers on the wheel, Lara glanced at her rather silent friend. The corner of her mouth twitched upwards, trying to smile, as she watched him. Kurtis simply stared out the window, watching the trees pass by, like a bored teenager, who's been forced to go on a cross-country road-trip. The slight smile vanished, however, when she took the time to think. What was going to happen, once Karel was dead, along with his cronies? It was clear that Kurtis never stayed anywhere for long, as was evident from the fact that just about everything he owned was stuffed in the backpack he had slung over his shoulder. Also evidence to his inability to sit still was the fact that he had even packed all his things, considering this trip had been planned as, and had turned out as, a simple weekend mission.

As silly as she felt for even thinking it, she couldn't help but wonder if it was some sort of security thing, for him. Always being ready to bolt, and never look back if he needed to. But then, maybe it wasn't so silly after all...

She had no more time to dwell on the matter. She barely had time to register the sound of something slamming into the car, and the sound of screeching tires, and crunching metal, before she lost all grip on consciousness.

----------------

It couldn't have been but a few seconds after the car slammed into the bottom of a ditch, as well as the side of the mountain, that Kurtis awakened. If it had been any longer, surely he would have been dead. This assumption was made due to the fact that he knew all too well what the green bits of light flashing everywhere meant. There was a nephilim near by, and said nephilim was responsible for the Lux Veritatis' excruciating headache, busted lip, and various other aches and pains that one acquired when one's car hit a very large, and very immobile bit of rock. Blinking, as if it were going to help him see better through his pain-blurred vision, Kurtis looked towards where Lara should have been. She wasn't there.

_Shit shit shit shit shit!_ his mind repeated as he looked for his companion. What if the nephilim had her? What if they'd figured it out... He spotted her, lying outside, a few feet from car, in the stream. And heading for her was the nephilim Lara had said was called Gabriel. Damn it. Kurtis scrambled over the seats, and out the driver's side door, pulling his chirugai from it's place on his belt as he did so. Since his concentration was on Lara more than it was the weapon, it didn't quite succeed in what he'd planned. Instead of neatly beheading Gabriel, it only sliced through several inches of his throat... Not enough to kill him, but enough slow him down a bit, and to piss him off.

Catching the chirugai, Kurtis knelt next to Lara and pulled her to her feet, as she opened her eyes, as he touched her. He kept an eye on their for-the-moment fallen enemy, and noticed he was already starting to stir. His poor attempt to hit the humans with one of his green bits of flame was easy to avoid. Their car, which had pretty much been totaled by it's intimate encounter with the mountain, wasn't so lucky. The "flame" hit it, setting the inside alight. Not good.

Not wanting to stick around to see if Gabriel's aim improved any when he wasn't in the middle of healing, Lara and Kurtis bolted for the trees, Lara limping slightly, Kurtis' head screaming at him to stop moving before it exploded. Speaking of explosions; the audible proof that their poor little rental was no more came only a minute after they had taken off. It suddenly occured to Kurtis that Lara wasn't the only important thing that the nephilim could be after...

"_Fuck_!" he muttered, coming to a halt, "Where's the spindle?"

"Here," Lara replied with a nod over shoulder at her pack. It seemed unless she was home, or somewhere where she felt relaxed, she was never without it. Rubbing her knee, which seemed to be the cause of her limping, she spoke again, "We should keep moving, for all we know, he's catching up."

"Where're we headin'?" Kurtis inquired, as they started moving again.

"We still need to check on Janine," Lara informed him, "Especially now. We walked into another trap, I'm afraid."

They had no more time for talk, for a ball of fire hit a tree in the vicinity of their heads... Impressive motivation for 'less talk, more run'.

-----------------

He had them... He could kill the Lux Veritatis, and take the woman to Joachim, and the last stage of his brethren's resurrection could begin. Gabriel followed behind his prey, not bothering to rush. There was no way they could outrun him, even if he was still putting energy in making his wound heal faster. Stupid mortal, thinking that he, a nephilim would be any more than simply inconvienced by such an injury. Their efforts to evade him were laughable, as well.

Gabriel raised his hand, prepared to kill the male, when someone blocked his shot.

"Lucas!" he spat, to his younger brother, "Get out of the way!"

Lucas only shook his head. He didn't need to speak to get his message across. Joachim had said to wait, therefore they would.

"Joachim is far too arrogant, little brother," said Gabriel, through clenched teeth, "He thinks that these humans are no threat to him, and that they will fall into place with his plan perfectly! His pride in himself and his assurance that they cannot possibly harm him will be the death of us!"

Again, Lucas simply shook his head, his green eyes locked with his brother's black ones, willing him to back down, and obey the orders they had been given.

Gabriel looked over his brother's shoulder, and saw that the humans were no where to be see, "DAMN IT, LUCAS!" he shouted, more angry at Joachim then his little brother. Lucas' presence, after all, had to be Joachim's doing. Without another word, Gabriel turned, and headed back the way he'd come, his long leather coat snapping loudly at the swift motion.

Lucas watched him for a moment, shoulders sagging a bit, as he sensed his brother's annoyance, then followed his sibling, as he always had, and as he always would. He only interfered out of concern for Gabriel. Joachim would have certainly killed him, if he had succeeded... and if he were to learn of Gabriel's scheme, failed or not. Both Joachim and Gabriel would have called it a weakness, but Lucas did not wish his brother dead. He didn't really wish the humans dead, either. But his brother said it was necessary if the other nephilim were to be brought back. And Gabriel had never lied to him before.

--------------

"Where... the hell... did he go?" Lara gasped, hand against a tree to support her weight. She had quite impressive stamina, but the non-stop running for at least an hour, with her knee out of whack, made things difficult.  
_  
_"I have... no clue," Kurtis replied, after waiting a moment to regain some air in his lungs. Air! Sweet mother of oxygen! "And what was up earlier? I thought I lost you back there."

"I noticed... That we weren't being... bombarded with fireballs anymore. I stopped to see if Gabriel was still following us..." she shook her head, "He'd stopped. He was talking to Lucas. Couldn't hear what was being said... But, as strange as this sounds, I think Lucas may have just saved our lives."

"Slightly scary thou-... Fuck me..." When Lara gave him a puzzled look, Kurtis pointed towards a clear path through the trees that allowed them to see the clearing where Janine's home sat. The house had been torched, the wood blackened by flames, the windows shattered and melted.

Lara's hands flew to her mouth, to stifle a gasp, as she made her way towards the burned remains of the house. She stepped out of the trees, and ran for the demolished building, looking for her friend. Kurtis tried to stop her, aware that this could have very well been a trap, before he realized they'd already sprung said trap by even deciding to check on Janine in the first place. With a sigh, Kurtis followed his lover, praying that one of the nephilim, or some of their goons weren't hiding in the trees, or waiting amidst the wreck of a house.

They found Janine, dead, in the trees on the other side of the house. There was a large burn in the center of her back, letting them know what had killed her. Her cell phone was still being held tightly in her hand, open, with a number half-way dialed. It seemed Janine had been running into the woods, trying to call the hotel again, when Gabriel or whoever had hit her in the back with a fireball, effectively ruining any chance she might have had of warning her friend.

Turning towards Lara, to see if she was okay, or on the verge of a breakdown, Kurtis was surprised to see that she was expressionless. The only signs she'd even noticed Janine were her white-as-a-sheet complexion, the anger that was evident in her hazel eyes, and the way her entire body shook with rage. Through the connection to his partner that he could now keep up without even thinking about it, Kurtis could feel the anger rolling off Lara in waves. He was more than certain that he had never seen her that pissed, and he was even more certain that he never wanted to see her that pissed again.

"Lara?" he said, trying to get her to do something other than stand there and stare, "Lara are you still with me?" Kurtis put a hand on her shoulder, half expecting her to shrug it off. Instead, Lara turned towards him, and fell against him, embracing him.

Rather confused about her sudden show of affection, Kurtis took a moment before he wrapped his arms around her.

_I wasn't lying when I told him everyone close to me ends up dead._ Lara thought to herself, forgetting to be mindful of the connection that, for some odd reason, stayed up constantly between herself and Kurtis, _Now Janine... Who's next? Winston, Zip, Alis?...Kurtis?_

Despite having heard her thoughts, Kurtis kept his mouth shut, knowing better than to try and start up an argument right then. So, instead, he led Lara away from the body of her friend, back towards the house. He'd seen Janine's truck on the other side. Even if the keys weren't in it, he could hotwire it, and at least get them back to Denver, and to the airport.

-----

Lara was momentarily distracted from being furious at the nephilim, when the overwhelming need to be furious with Kurtis kicked in. Since her landing spot, when she'd toppled out of their former vehicle, had been a small stream that was more mud than anything else, she needed a change of clothes, before they could even think of going to the airport. The problem with this being that all her clothes had been in the no-longer-in-existence rental car. Kurtis' brilliant solution was that she borrow some of his clothes, which, as alway, he kept in his backpack, meaning he still had all his things.

Begrudingly, Lara agreed, and as such, was now wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, a navy t-shirt that looked exactly like the shirt she'd first seen her american friend in, and green fatigues. She wasn't too fond of her current attire. Kurtis seemed to find it amusing.

Her annoyance with her wardrobe didn't last long, though, for the moment she climbed back into the truck, after changing, she was reminded of Janine, and who had killed her. Jaw tightening as she clenched her teeth, Lara silently swore that she would at least kill Gabriel before all this was over, even if it was the last thing she did... And the way things were going, it likely would be.

----------

The living room in Croft manor was deathly silent as Lara informed Zip and Alister of what had transpired in Colorado. Both men had known, and been friends with Janine. Actually, Zip had known her longer than Lara had. She'd been one of his chef buddies, before she got into the ranching business, and it had been through her that Lara had met Zip. Taking that into account, it was Zip that Lara was worried about, more than Alis, when she'd spoken of Janine's death, and who had been the cause. Zip was sitting, as per usual, with his feet up on the couch, staring absently into the fire, not saying a word.

After several long minutes, he angrily shoved himself to his feet, and stalked off to his computer lab. Alister looked as though he was considering following his friend, to offer some comfort, but Lara caught his eye, and shook her head. She didn't think Zip would take kindly to any of Alister's likely ill-fated attempts to cheer him up. Not that Alister himself was in much condition to be comforting to anyone. He looked as though he were about to cry, and Lara couldn't blame him.

"You can stop fidgeting," Alister said, out of the blue, "No one's going to persecute you for not being all torn up over this."

Lara had almost forgotten that Kurtis was present, standing off in a corner, looking rather uncomfortable. "Alister's got a point," said Lara, "So you can stop lurking..."

"I'm not lurkin'," Kurtis replied, moving forward, taking a seat next to Lara, "I'm thinkin'...Thinkin' that could have easily been one of us, if whatever happened between Lucas and Gabriel hadn't happened... We walked right into another god damned trap, and this time we came close to kickin' the bucket..."

"This is going where?" Lara asked, wondering if he was getting at what she thought he was.

Kurtis took a deep breath, as if to prepare himself for her wrath, as he spoke, "I think I should go on to Egypt alone, to get the shears...If the nephilim are there... Well, at least they'll have killed someone who's expendable..."

Lara didn't reply right away... She was too busy trying not to instantly start shouting at him that a) she didn't need protecting b) she'd dealt with worse (even though that was a bit of a lie) and most important of all, c) he was most certainly not expendable.

Sensing an argument coming, Alister got to his feet, sniffling a bit, "I'll... I'll just be in the library... Looking for ways to kill our not so angelic friends..." With that, he hurried off.

Lara calmed herself before she spoke, "Who said you were expendable?" she said quietly.

"It's you they need, not me," Kurtis reasoned, "They get you, and that's it, it's over... Me, well, all they get is a little self-satisfaction before you send their sorry asses to hell."

"So just because they _might_ get me, I'm supposed to just lay low, while you go and get yourself killed? If you think that I'll agree to that, you've got another thing coming." Lara crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest, and glared at the man beside her, "Did you ever stop to think that they could just as easily get me here?" Judging from his expression, he hadn't. Typical. "You didn't, did you? News flash, Kurtis, if Karel really wanted to get me, right away, or if he even knows what I am, he could just snap his fingers, and have a small army ready to make an attempt to grab me, from here, and probably succeed..."

"But he hasn't," Kurtis replied, "And that's my point. He hasn't tried anything here, so for now, here is safe."

"And the minute he realizes I'm hiding here, while you're out risking your neck, he'll still send some of his goons to get me, and likely kill the others while they're at it. Away from here is what's safest for my friends, if not me. I am not staying behind. I don't need protecting, I don't need you worrying over me, and," she added, as he tried to put a hand on her shoulder, "I don't need to hear your reasoning." She got to her feet, and stomped off, towards the stairs, "Good night."

She heard Kurtis following her, "I said _good night_," she spun around, the chirugai, which had been sitting innocently on the table, between the couches, sprung to life, and made one circle around Lara before zooming right past Kurtis' arm, close enough to slice the fabric of his shirt, before it buried its self in the mantle of the fireplace. Lara, whom hadn't even been thinking about the weapon looked back and forth between it, and Kurtis, in shock. Shock turned to guilt, when she noticed the red beginning to stain the fabric of Kurtis' shirt. The man looked equally surprised.

"I-... I'm-..." Lara tried to get out some form of apology, but none came.

After a moment, she simply turned and fled to her room, desperate to get away. Upon reaching her room, she slammed the door behind her, and slid to the floor, back pressed against the hard wood. _God, what did I just do? I could have killed him..._ She thought, as various images of different ways the scenario downstairs could have gone, many that had to do with the chirugai having been aimed higher, and spinning with more force than it had needed to nick her partner, bombarded her mind. She entwined her fingers in her hair, clenching at her skull in an attempt to chase the images away. _He says I need to stay safe... after what just happened, it's him that needs protecting..._

That one thought prompted all the memories of the nightmares she'd had when he'd still been under Karel's watch, and all other dangerous situations she had gotten Kurtis into. It only served to make her feel all the more guilty. Underneath the guilt, she was still more than a little pissed that Kurtis had dared suggest that she try to hide. Hiding wasn't in her nature, never had been, never would be. If she was going to die any time soon, it wasn't going to be hiding in her mansion like a coward. No way in hell. But then... Maybe Kurtis should go alone... Then he would be away from her. If anything like what had just happened, happened again...

She wrapped her arms around her legs, pulling her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. She was still wearing Kurtis' clothes, she realized, as she breathed in the faint scent of smoke that lingered in the cloth. Normally the smell, unless combined with the scent of Kurtis himself, would have bothered her, but just then, it comforted her, somewhat. Breathing in the scent that she'd come to associate with her partner, she bit her lip.

Lara's eyes clouded over with tears, and she felt them start pouring down her cheeks, soaking through the fabric of her/Kurtis' pants. She let them. It had been a long time since she'd actually had a good cry. What better time than now? So she cried. Cried out of sorrow, for Janine, out of anger, at herself, and Karel, and all he'd done to hurt her, and her friends, and out of guilt, and regret from all she'd put Kurtis through, what she'd done not five minutes before, and for the hurt she would no doubt cause him in the future. Causing hurt seemed to be one of her talents, of late. She'd led the nephilim right to Janine, and now Janine was dead, and Zip was suffering because of it, and now she'd hurt one of the few men she'd thought she had a chance with...

There was a light knock on the door. "Lara?"

Lara didn't know whether or not to be relieved that it was Alister's voice, instead of Kurtis'. "Yes, Alister?" she sniffed, rubbing her eyes, trying in vain to hide the fact she was crying, "What's wrong?" _Stupid question, Croft... You just told him a few minutes ago that one of his friends has been murdered...One of YOUR friends..._

"I- I just wanted to make sure you were alright... I heard your door slam, from the library."

"I'm... as alright as can be expected, Alis." Lara got to her feet, and opened the door. Had she not been fighting back more tears, she might have laughed. Alister always did look silly in his pajamas. "How about you?"

Alister gave a half-hearted shrug, "Same, I'd wager... I'm not entirely sure... I just sort of switched off, earlier... It seems to be helping, and I'm afraid I'll break down, and be of no use to you, if I switch back on..."

Lara suddenly grabbed her friend, and hugged him tightly, "Don't 'switch off' Alis," she said, over his surprised sputtering, "That's what I've been doing for longer than I can remember, and it has done me no favors." She gave him one last squeeze, and released him. "Take a break tonight, my friend. You can resume your research tomorrow."

"But," Alister protested, once he'd regained his composure, "I'm sure I can find a way to kill the-"

"Alister," Lara said, her tone changing to one of warning, as she scrubbed at her face with her sleeve, "Do I have to make it an order? We all need a break, it's been a rough couple of weeks." She sniffed again, to emphasise her point. If it had all been enough to break her down, she knew Alister would reason, then it definitely _was_ time for a break.

"Fine. Goodnight, Lara," he turned to leave, but paused, "Oh... Kurtis said to tell you he didn't mean to upset you." With that, he was gone, leaving Lara torn between just going to bed, or going to Kurtis' room, to talk to him... to apologize. In a brief moment of cowardice, she decided that the apologies could wait until she'd gotten some sleep, and had time to clear her head.

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The sound of creaking floorboards woke her. The mansion creaked on its own, yes, but she knew the sound of someone trying and failing to move quietly when she heard it. Someone had stepped on the loose floorboard in the hallway outside her room. Having fallen asleep in "her" clothes, she had no reason to bother finding something to cover herself, as she got out of bed, and slowly moved towards her bedroom door. She stopped briefly, to grab the pistols she kept, behind the medusa shield, before continuing on her path. As she reached the door, and started to reach for the knob, however, it was shoved open.

Kurtis stumbled in, in nothing but the sweatpants he usually wore to bed. Lara didn't get the chance to ask him just what in the hell was going on, before someone appeared in the doorway behind him. Before Lara could shout at him to get down, and out of the mercenary's line of fire, the forementioned merc pulled the trigger of his assault rifle. Lara could only stare in horror, and disbelief as the bullets tore through Kurtis' scarred body.

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Just a friendly heads-up by the way... The next chapter? Bit violent... Bloody too. I would include harsh language in this warning... But that should be something you're accustomed too by now.

hit the little purple review button!...Please?


	11. Living Nightmare

This is a painfully short chapter, I am aware. And there will likely be points in this chapter where you will want to stop reading altogether... Though whether that's from what takes place, or the fact that this chap sucks is as of yet indetermined... Please just bear with me on this one.

Again sorry for the shortness, but I had this chapter planned out exactly how I wanted, and it came up a bit short...

Also, a brief warning before we begin: This chapter is violent, and bloody... And Lara gets a bit mouthy.. .But then, after the ending of the last chapter... Can you blame her? Violence, and gore... Consider yourself warned.

Chapter Eleven

Living Nightmare

_A_ll Lara could feel was utter and complete rage, and hate, as she set her sights on the merc standing in her bedroom doorway. With an almost inhuman shout, Lara fired both pistols at the merc, before he even knew what hit him. She didn't stop firing until the click of the guns told her the mags were empty, and the mercenary was long dead, his blood staining the walls and the floor. Despite the fact that she knew there had to be more than one, Lara dropped the pistols, and looked towards the still form of Kurtis, lying in a pool of blood, in front of her. She knelt next to him, and desperately searched for a pulse, or any hint that he was alive. There was none. His skin was already losing its warmth. Kurtis Trent was dead, and sheer will alone wasn't going to bring him back this time.

Lara said not a word, she shed no tears, she simply switched off all emotion other than rage, and hate. She got to her feet, her hands covered in blood, and headed for her wardrobe. She dug through several drawers before she found her stash of ammo. Reloading her pistols, she noted, with no surprise, that neither Zip, nor Alister, nor Winston had come running at the sound of the gunshots. That could mean one of several things. They were dead, they were unconscious, or they were being held hostage somewhere in the mansion. With a last glance at Kurtis, Lara left her room, to hunt down the rest of the bastards responsible, and with any luck to save the rest of her friends.

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She came across two more mercs at the open door, leading out to the stairs. She heard them talking, before she saw them.

"Man, what was Karel talking about?" said the one on the left side of the door, "This is easy, all that's here is a few lousy alarms, two geeks, an old man, and a couple archaeologists with a taste for the supernatural. "

"Apparently they give the boss alot of trouble, Mitch, so you might wanna pipe down..." warned the one on the right, "Besides, the woman is the archaeologist... The dude's a Lux something-or-other."

"That's Lux Veritatis, you stupid bastards," Lara said, one pistol pressed against each of their heads, "And tell your buddy hello for me would you?"

The looks of sheer confusion on their faces were priceless... So before they could change to looks of something else, Lara pulled the triggers on her guns, ignoring the droplets of blood that hit her face, as the bullets sprayed blood, brain matter, and skull fragments everywhere. Now, where were the rest of Lefty and Righty's coworkers. Even Karel wouldn't have been so arrogant as to only send three men after her. That would have just been asking to fail. She made her way to the library, not bothering to be quiet or careful. All inclinations that this little battle could result in her death were meaningless, now.

Opening the door that led into the hallway, that would in turn lead to the library, Lara felt a bullet whiz by her ear, as three more trigger happy mercs made their presence known. Lara ducked back out of the hall, pressing herself against the wall. The first merc to come through the door had his neck broken before he even knew Lara had grabbed him, the second had several bullets buried in his skull before he knew his buddy was dead, and the third actually managed to get off a couple shots before Lara killed him. A bullet buried its self in Lara's arm, but it wasn't even enough to make her flinch. She had well and truly switched off... And at this rate, it wasn't likely that there was going to be a 'switch on' option.

The library was a scary sight.

It seemed Alister had gotten to the shotgun that was kept behind a row of books on the shelf nearest to the desk, and had managed to kill one of his attackers. The man was blown quite literally in half, telling Lara that the shot had been taken at extremely close range. The blood spatter seemed almost impossible. Behind the desk, however, was the scariest sight in the room. Alister, obviously dead, his already pale skin even more pale than normal, all the blood that gave him color having drained from his body, through several bullet wounds, and a slashed throat.

Lara squeezed her eyes shut, and fled, the need to slaughter even more of Karel's men growing with each second the sight of Alister lying dead on the floor refused to leave her mind. The image of Kurtis resurfaced as well, causing Lara to clench her guns in her hands so tight that her knuckles turned an impossible shade of white. She found herself hoping that Karel had sent an army of his men, or had even come himself. She was just itching for something else to kill.

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In the kitchen she found Winston, shot in the back. The merc that appeared in the kitchen when she accidentally knocked a pan off the counter was wishing he had never heard of her by the time Lara was finished with him.

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In the computer lab was Zip, dead like everyone else. There was no one there for Lara to take out her fury on, this time. So instead, with another inhuman cry, she shattered several computer monitors.

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As she made her way to the court yard, she kept feeling something tug her arm, and the quietest of whispers, as if someone was trying to speak to her, but they were afraid to raise their voice. She ignored it, and kept going. Just before she got to the door, however, she felt someone grip her arm, hard, and give her a good yank. As she spun, to hit her attacker, she was sure she heard someone shout her name. It didn't matter. She hit the merc who'd grabbed her square in the face. The crunch that signaled his nose breaking was like music to Lara's ears. He dropped to one knee, and Lara spun again, this time kicking him in the jaw. He dropped to the floor unconscious.

Another tried to grab her as well, and again, Lara was sure that she heard someone call her name. Again she ignored it. This time the blow she dealt was with the butt of her gun. Like his coworker, he fell, unconscious.

In the court yard was nothing, but in the gym was what Lara had been hoping a find. A shitload of Karel's men, all just waiting to die.

"Hello boys," Lara said, a grim smirk on her face, "Just lining up for the slaughter aren't we? Karel really should have remembered who he was fucking with."

"Oh but I did," said a voice, from above, as the men spun to look at Lara, surprised by her arrival. Lara looked up, to see Karel floating near the ceiling,"I remembered very well in fact. The men were merely a precaution to make sure all of your little friends were out of the way and therefore unable to help you. So tell me, Lara, how was it, seeing them all dead?" He dropped down until he was standing right in front of Lara, "I can make one of them come back, if you like. Who will it be?" First, he changed into Winston, Lara was prepared to shrug it off, but something was wrong... His eyes weren't the soulless, empty ones normally on a nephilim... they were Winston's caring ones... Next was Zip, with the same thing wrong... then Alister... Then Kurtis... Lara almost lost her hold on her emotional 'off' switch at the last.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Lara screamed at the nephilim, as the voices she'd heard before, got louder... She could hear them, Kurtis, Winston, Alister, Zip... She could hear them, and it was going to drive her insane, "GET AWAY FROM ME! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

Karel only laughed, as he moved up towards the ceiling again, "So Lara, do you think you can take on all of my men? We'll see, I guess... And I'll be waiting to finish you off, if you survive. Men... Kill her."

Lara had no time to think, no time to try and banish the voices from her head, before a wave of mercs swept towards her. But they were on her territory now. They were in her gym, and each and every one of them was going to regret it. Each and every one of them was going to pay for the deaths of her friends. And when she was done with them, the sorry son of a bitch flying about the room was going to pay too. And pay dearly.

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Lara dropped to the floor, panting, covered in blood, some of it hers, most belonging the twenty or so bodies that lat about her. She stood directly in the middle of the room, the bodies surrounding her in something resembling a grotesque ceremonial circle, their blood dripping from her fingers, as she watched Karel descend to stand in front of her. He applauded mockingly as his feet touched the floor.

"My, my, Lara. Well done. Though I must say, you're looking a bit worse for wear, why don't you just lay down the guns, and just join me?"

Lara glared at him a moment, then tossed her empty guns aside. Karel had just started to smirk in satisfaction, before Lara spat blood right in his face, "Go to hell, you stupid son of a bitch."

"Come now, Lara," said Karel, wiping the blood/saliva from his face, sounding more than a little annoyed, "So many people have died tonight, it would be a pity to raise the death count.

Lara shrugged, "What's one more, when stacked upon all the rest? Your men were just in the way... You're the one I wanted. Pity I can't kill you more than once though. You deserve it."

Karel laughed at her, "If you think you've even the slightest chance of beating me, by all means, dear girl, please try... But, perhaps there is a form more suited for such an attempt?"

Before Lara's tired, blood-lust filled brain could register what he meant, Karel's pale unattractive face had morphed into Kurtis' handsome one. Lara froze for a moment when she noticed that again, the eyes she saw _were_ Kurtis'. She shook her head. It was just a nephilim trick, combined with shock, and likely a desire to have her partner back. Nothing more.

"Change back," she spat at the nephilim, ignoring the rather convincing faked look of confusion he gave her. "He's _dead_! You think your petty little mind-fucks are going to work on me _now_?" Still she ignored the fact that Karel was putting on one hell of a show, with his confused expressions, and with those eyes that were so like Kurtis' pleading with her to recognize him... She shook her head fiercely, and desperate to make the image of her lover disappear, she threw a punch at the nephilim.

He didn't fight back, he only dodged her blow, with surprising accuracy, taking a step back.

"Lara, it's me!" said the nephilim, shielding himself.

"Shut up! He's dead! Dead like everyone else!" Another failed attempt to hit her foe. Tears burned her eyes, but Lara refused to let them fall. No matter how hard she tried, she wasn't able to hit the man in front of her. He somehow knew what she was going to do, before she did it...But he didn't try to hit her in return. He just dodged her blows, taking steps backwards when necessary. "Fight back," Lara hissed, "Just fight back, I'm not falling for your charade."

The not-Kurtis only looked all the more confused, "Lara, what are you talking about? It's me. You had a dream is all..."

He sounded so convincing... So, so convincing. Lara even dared to let herself hope for a moment, as she squeezed her eyes shut, that this was all a dream. But the smell of blood in the air didn't disappear, if anything it got stronger. When Lara opened her eyes, the bodies were still there, her clothes, and hair were still sticky with drying blood, but the one thing that convinced her that it was all real was the change in the nephilim before her. It was only for a moment, but that moment was enough. The eyes that were so convincing changed for just a second to the dull, lifeless orbs one saw on a nephilim... Then they changed back...

Hopes crushed, Lara attempted to hit her foe, again and again. All the while, he never fought back... Until Lara came dangerously close to actually hitting him. Not-Kurtis grabbed her arm, spun her around, twisting the arm he had hold of, hard.

"Sorry about this, Lara, you're not givin' me much of a choice here," he said, as he started to shove his captive towards the floor.

Lara managed to squirm out of his grip, and shove him backwards. The nephilim tripped over one of the many bodies littering the floor, reaching for Lara as he fell. He grabbed Lara's hand, and pulled her down with him. Lara fell on top of the nephilim, her knees on either side of his body, her hands on either side of his head, with her looking straight down at him... Memories of the night not so long ago in Denver hit her like a ton of bricks...

_Kurtis' hands wandered over her bare skin. He was taking his time, exploring every inch of her body. Lara's own hands ran over his scarred chest, and back, her fingers tips mapping out every detail of his flesh..._

Lara blinked, and shook her head... She couldn't let her mind play tricks on her. This was a nephilim she had pinned to the floor... Not Kurtis... But her mind refused to listen, refused to stop showing her flashes of her own memories...

_She lay with her head resting on her lover's chest, index finger tracing light circles over his skin, as she listened to his heartbeat slowly return to it's normal rhythm._

_Just as Lara was beginning to drift off to sleep, she felt Kurtis press his lips to the top of her head, and heard him mutter, more to himself, than her, she was sure, "I think I'm fallin' in love with you, Croft."_

_Lara smiled slightly to herself, considering saying something in return. She chose not to, and instead, simply let sleep claim her, the smile never leaving her lips. _

Lara's hands clenched into fists, as she bowed her head. In her attempts to get herself under control, she had almost forgotten about the nephilim underneath her, until he moved slightly, in what seemed to be an escape attempt. She couldn't have that.

"Get out of my head," she muttered, one more, before she grabbed a rifle from a near by corpse. As she pressed the barrel of the gun to the nephilim's forehead, she heard the voices of her friends again. She blocked them out, and pulled the trigger.

The being beneath her didn't move again. But nor did he revert to his true form, like Lara had hoped he would. No, he stayed looking like Kurtis. Looking like a very dead Kurtis. She needed to look at something else, anything else, so she looked around the gym. The sight of all the bodies had been a bit of a comfort before, when she had been hellbent on getting her revenge. Now that she had completed her task, the sight of the corpses made her sick. And now the voices were back, louder still, yet she still wasn't able to make out what they were saying. She only knew that they belonged to her friends.

"I've lost it," she said to herself, with a sound that was somewhere between a sob, and a laugh, "I've totally lost it." She continued half-laughing and half-crying for a moment, before she felt the body beneath her vanish.

Karel/Kurtis was gone, leaving her sitting on the floor, while Karel's cruel laugh echoed through the mansion.

"_Fuck_," Lara sobbed, slamming her fists onto the floor, "Fuck it all!"

Then the room changed. It was no longer dark, instead it was brightly lit. The smell of blood was gone. Lara looked up.

There were no bodies.

There wasn't a drop of blood.

Near her feet was a rolled up corner of one of her floor mats, for the gym, right where the body she had tripped over should have been.

Alister, Zip, and Winston stood near by.

Alister was holding a now-stained handkerchief to his obviously broken nose, being mindful of a newly-formed bruise on his jaw. Zip was was rubbing a nasty bump on the side of his head. All three were looking at her as though she had gone insane.

Lara blinked in confusion.

It was then that she noticed she was once again sitting on someone. Slowly, almost painfully so, she turned her head to look down at her living cushion.

Kurtis lay there, under her, staring up at her, as confused as the others.

_Just a little taste of what I can do, Miss Croft._ Lara heard Karel's voice in her head, as she realized what had just happened.

Her gaze met Kurtis', and underneath the confusion, she saw concern, and... love?

Seeing that, and the rest of her friends, was all Lara needed. She let her body relax, and let down the rest of the barrier, keeping her emotions in check. She fell against Kurtis' chest, body shaking with sobs, and the remnants of fear, and sorrow left over from what she had witnessed, as she felt Kurtis wrap his strong arms protectively around her, and heard his murmured words of comfort, chasing the feelings away.

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Now, hit that lovely little review button to berate me for putting Lara through that :p


	12. Pyramids and Sand

Okay, chapter twelve... we're gettin closer to the end here, now... Prolly why I've been slacking in my writing... The ending is always the hardest part of a story to write. Though, when I say "closer" I mean just that... We ain't there just yet. I'm still working on chapter 14, which, unless something goes WAY different then what I have planned will NOT be the last chapter...

Anyway, enjoy. (There are a few bits in here shamelessly stolen from the TR movies.. and Legend...Forgive me :p)

Chapter Twelve

Pyramids and Sand

_"I_s your nose alright, Alis?" Kurtis asked, after the group had migrated into the living room. Lara was sitting on one of the couches scrunched up into a ball, looking as though she wished she could just disappear.

"It's stobbed bleeding now ib dat can be considered alright," said Alister, unable to speak properly.

Kurtis resisted the urge to laugh at his friend's voice. This was no laughing matter. Lara had been the cause of Alister's broken nose, and the nasty goose egg on Zip's head. And she had come damn close to giving Kurtis more than a few bruises. Luckily, her moves had been somewhat sloppy, likely due to whatever kind of dream-state she'd been in, and he'd avoided all of her attacks.

"What happened?" Lara inquired, voice barely above a whisper.

"You were wanderin' around the place like a zombie," said Zip, "We all heard ya screamin' in your room, and next thing we knew, we're trailin' you all over the place... We tried talkin' to ya, didn't seem to work. Alister here tried to grab you, when you headed for the courtyard, and you hit him square in the face. When I tried to get you, you whacked me with one of your practice pistols, and damn girl, you hit hard... Alister was out for a few minutes."

"By the time we caught up with you," Kurtis took over, "You were just standin' in the middle of the gym. When I tried to talk to you, you started tellin' me to 'change back'...Went on about someone bein' dead, then you were tryin' your damnedest to hit me. I managed to get hold of you, but you knocked me back, and I tripped over that stupid mat, and pulled you down with me... I think that's about it..." After a moment he asked, softly, "What were you seeing, Lara? What happened?"

"I woke up and I heard someone sneaking around outside my room," said Lara, seeming to still be in shock that whatever she had witnessed hadn't been real, "And then you came in... One of Karel's men followed you... He shot you...You...You were dead..." She took a deep breath, and told them all of what happened. She faltered a bit when she got to the end, when she'd been attacking what she thought was Karel, though that bit of the story did clear a few things up for him, about what she'd been babbling about when he'd been trying to get her to come to her senses.

"How did this Karel get inside your mind without being here?" Winston inquired.

"That's assuming it was Karel," said Zip, "I mean, no offense Lara, but these past couple weeks haven't done any of us any favors... You sure it wasn't just a really nasty nightmare?"

Lara shook her head, "It was Karel... Just after I 'woke up' I heard him saying that was just a taste of what he could do..." she looked up at Kurtis, "Does this convince you that I'm no safer here than I would be anywhere else?" Her voice was quiet again. "I could have done serious damage to any of you..." at Alister's scoff, she added, "I could have done even more serious damage then... And I'm sorry about your nose Alister, and your head, Zip... " She looked towards Kurtis again, "I'm sorry, for what happened." She was apologizing for both the scene in the gym, and the incident with the chirugai earlier.

Kurtis sat next to the woman, and pulled her to him, hugging her tightly, "It's okay... You weren't in control of what was happening."

Zip cleared his throat, "Nice as the apologies are, guys, Winston brought up a good question. How did Karel get into your head, without being here?"

"Who knows," said Kurtis, "I dunno how close he has to be to have an effect on someone, I just know it's scary what he can do... "

"We just need to find the damn shears, and get this over with," said Lara, still being held tightly to Kurtis' chest, "Before this happens again..."

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Joachim had to admit... He was rather pleased with his work. He'd thought it would be harder to get to Croft than it had been. But just a few looks into her mind, and finding some of her fears had made it painfully easy to set her on edge. He turned to the other two occupants of the room.

"That, Gabriel, is how you scare someone like Miss Croft. All you did was piss her off, and that simply won't do... "

Gabriel's jaw tightened, as he tried to keep from snapping at his boss. At least Joachim hadn't discovered his attempt to kill Trent. He'd have been up to his eyes in hot water then. Despite what Gabriel wanted people to believe, he knew he was no match for Joachim alone... No, his uncle was far older, and far more powerful than he could hope to be, for at least another several thousand years. It had been, Joachim, after all, whom had imprisoned his sister, Ariadni, Lucas and Gabriel's mother...A feat that even Gabriel, and his father combined hadn't managed. _One day, old man,_ Gabriel thought, seething, _one day, I'll have you at my feet, begging for your life, just like you had Mother doing. I'll get so much more pleasure from watching you do the begging, than I did her... Just wait._

Lucas, always keen on his brother's feelings, and thoughts, shot the older nephilim a slight glare. _You'll get yourself killed, Brother,_ he thought, returning his attention to Joachim, _And I won't be able to stop it. _

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"Egypt again," Lara sighed, looking out the window of the plane, "Nothing but pyramids, and sand... Why did the shears have to be here, of all places?"

"Maybe the fates have it in for you," Kurtis suggested, not looking up from his book. Despite their casual tones, things hadn't quite gone back to normal with them... Or with any of Lara's friends, for that matter. Something told Lara they wouldn't go back to normal until this was all over.

Lara scoffed, "You do remember I don't believe fate has any control over me, don't you?"

"Of course, dear," Kurtis replied, still not looking up from "The Stand", "But you have to admit at some point that there is some form of destiny."

Lara rolled her eyes, but didn't answer him. She resumed watching the sand dunes below, until the city came into view. _Finally...The faster we get to the tomb, and get out, the faster I can get away from here._ Oh, how she detested this place now.

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Finding a guide who would take them to the tomb was rather easy, since just about everyone in the city knew where it was, since the archaeologist had died down there. Mostly because of the rumors surrounding his death; rumors that it hadn't been the tunnel collapsing that had killed him, but something else entirely. Something that was protecting the tomb. Needless to say, many of the people they talked to thought they were insane for wanting to venture down into the tomb, considering the rumors, and the fact that it had been proven to be unstable.

Their guide was a tall woman, with waist-length hair, that was the strangest shade; bright, shining white, although she couldn't have been past her mid-twenties, if that. She was pretty, in what would have been an unreal sort of way, if not for the scar that adorned her right eye, and the other just below, and to the side of it, on her cheek. Her skin was pale, which considering where they were, was odd, and her eyes were a pale, icy blue that observed everything with a disinterested, and dismissive look. When she spoke, it was in an accent-less voice. She gave her name, Alessa Klorel, rather quickly, which led both Lara and Kurtis to believe that it was a fake, but they played along. They did need help, the name of whoever helped wasn't important.

"I will take you to the tomb," said Alessa, once introductions were done, "But not until morning... It will take the better part of four hours to get there, and it is not safe to approach the place at night... Many who do, never come back...At least the ones who enter during daylight have bodies left to find."

"That's comforting," Kurtis muttered sarcastically, "At least we know we'll get a proper funeral, corpses and all... Think they'd bury us together, Lara?"

Before Lara could reply, with something equally sarcastic- and rude- Alessa interrupted, "Come, I'll show you to my home... You'll not find a hotel room this late, and I would prefer to get an early start tomorrow...Time is of the essence."

Odd thing to say really, Kurtis thought, anyway. Alessa had no reason for needing to hurry, unless she was eager to feed whatever horrible beasties were waiting, and she didn't know what their purpose for going there was. He shrugged it off, however. Perhaps he was just being paranoid, since the illusion incident, several nights before. He'd seen no signs that this woman was a nephilim, and while he hadn't been able to read her thoughts, the only thing he'd gotten a "lie" vibe from had been her name, and he couldn't hold that against her, since he himself lied about his own name every time he introduced himself.

--------------

Alessa woke them early, as she had warned them she would. The sun had only just began to peak over the horizon when Kurtis felt himself being shaken awake. When he opened his eyes to see Alessa leaning over him, he found himself feeling very grateful that neither he, nor Lara had been in the mood for much of anything... That would have made the morning wakeup call very...very awkward. Alessa muttered something about having overslept, and needing to get a move on... Kurtis found himself wondering just what was wrong with the woman; dawn was not oversleeping. Dawn was getting up just a tad too early.

Lara, normally not one to complain about getting up early, groaned in protest, as she rolled out of Kurtis' hold, and out of bed. Judging from how tired she looked, she hadn't slept. Of course, Kurtis had noticed that she hadn't slept properly since Karel had gotten into her head. She wouldn't admit it, but Kurtis knew she was afraid of it happening again. Rubbing the bandaged cut on his arm, Kurtis couldn't blame her. She could have killed Alister, or Zip... Hell, she could have killed _him._His only injury had been a bruised ass. If you were only counting things she'd done while under Karel's influence anyway. The cut on his arm wouldn't count for that, but to be fair, she still hadn't known what she was doing.

She'd reminded him of himself, that night, actually. He hadn't been very in-control of the chirugai when he'd first started using it, and more than one person had had to dive for cover when his practice sessions rolled around. So he really couldn't hold it against her, not when he, with all the proper powers, had done the same thing on many occasions. It still bugged him, however, that his weapon was responding to Lara. She wasn't able to move anything else, she couldn't mind-read, except with him, and he could only guess that was because he'd formed a strong mental connection with her, that for some reason, he could no longer get rid of.

"Are you ready yet?" Alessa called from another room, "We need to get moving."

Sighing, Kurtis finished dressing, just as Lara did, and followed her out of the guest room.

-----------------

Thankfully, they didn't have to walk to the temple, though Lara was sure that by the time they were done with all of this, that Kurtis would hate any beast of burden. Their form of transport today was camels, something her American companion wasn't too pleased with. Had she not been in a foul mood, Lara might have laughed at him. As Alessa had told them, the trek to the tomb did take up the better part of four hours. Four silent hours, for it seemed that their guide wasn't much for talk, and neither Lara nor Kurtis were in chatty moods.

"There," said Alessa, pointing to a pile of rubble, "Is where the entrance used to be... There is another way in, but I am not sure where it is... It is likely a safer route, since that's where they pulled that archaeologist from, but it is likely buried beneath the sand now, and therefore would take too long to locate."

"You could have mentioned that the front door was caved in before," Kurtis grumbled.

"Oh shush," said Lara, as she turned her headseat on, allowing Zip and Alister to see the current problem. Kurtis did the same, "Doors are for the unimaginative."

"Or those without dynamite," Zip added, though his tone wasn't as chipper as it normally was... Since Lara had told him about Janine, he had been moody, and all around anti-social.

"Don't give her ideas, Zip," said Kurtis.

"If you're quite through," Alessa interrupted, pulling her shimmering hair up into a ponytail, "We should start looking for a way in."

"We?" Lara and Kurtis asked at the same time.

"Yes, we," Alessa replied with a shrug, "I intend on going with you. Consider it payment for bringing you here."

Kurtis raised an eyebrow at her, "What was that last night about bodies, and never bein' seen again? We're insane, we're allowed to do stupid shit like this, you seem perfectly _sane_."

Alessa narrowed her eyes at him, the icy color darkening with an almost cruel glint, "What I seem to be, and what I am, are often two very different things, Mr. Trent... But as you wish. I'll wait here until nightfall. If you're not out by then, you won't be coming out at all."

------------------

It was a time consuming process, but eventually Lara and Kurtis were able to locate a suitable place to enter the tomb; a small gap in the stones that had collapsed over the entrance. Ignoring Alister's questions about even being able to fit through the hole, Lara crawled through first. She had been doing rather well, with being back in Egypt, up until that point. Squeezing through the rocks, going into a tomb, instead of crawling out of one made her feel as if she were making her way back into the ruins that had almost been the death of her. She knew it only took a few seconds to squeeze through, but it felt like an eternity. The interior of the place didn't help much either; crumbling walls, piles of rubble, the distinct impression that many people had died there...

"Hey Lara," said Kurtis from the hole, "Little help?"

It seemed the American had gotten himself stuck. The fact that her partner's predicament amused her greatly was enough to momentarily distract her from her discomfort. She took hold of Kurtis' hand, and helped to pull him through the gap, though she made a show of making it look as though he was terribly heavy. Once fully inside, and on his feet- Lara had pulled too hard, and he'd fallen to the ground, face first- Kurtis examined the walls of the ruins. They were bare, save for one line of hieroglyphs, on the left side of the entrance.

"What's all this chicken-scratch here say?"

Lara flicked on her light, and read the words aloud, in Egyptian. When Kurtis gave her a confused look, she shrugged and said, "It's a warning, about going no further, or the guardians will hand your carcass to Anubis."

"Right..." said Kurtis, "So, pretty much, take one more step and we get our heads bashed in?"

"Pretty much."

"Lovely... Can we go home now?" Kurtis spoke of Croft Mansion as "home" without even thinking about it, and Lara was about to ask him if he really did consider it home...

"Chickening out Kurtis?" said Alister, finally speaking up, and interrupting Lara's question.

Kurtis didn't reply, but after a moment he said, "Hey Alister, how's the nose?"

"...Better," said Alister, cautiously.

"You want it to stay that way, you'll shut up."

"Right-o..."

---------------

They didn't get their heads bashed in, when they went farther into the tomb. As a matter of fact, they didn't even see any of the supposed "guardians"... Just a long narrow hall that seemed to have no end. There were no hieroglyphs on the walls, which was rather odd. If that had been a tomb, there should have been something telling whom was buried there, but other than the warning, the walls were unnaturally bare. It was also unnerving how long the hall seemed to go on, and on. It sloped downwards, so all things considered, they had to be pretty deep underground now. Lara was actually rather glad that there was really nothing of interest so far, for it made it much easier to ignore the fact that she was back in a place she hated.

A crumbling noise started up above and behind them, and Lara was barely able to keep herself from panicking. The roof behind them caved in, the stones blocking their only way out- as of then, anyway.

"Well..." said Kurtis, once the dust had cleared, "I guess we're takin' the back door out. This place just gets better and better."

Lara only nodded, after blinking for a moment to force herself out of her memories.

"If there IS a back door," said Alister.

"If there's not," Zip put in, "Then you'll just have to wait till we can send someone after you."

Both Kurtis and Lara rolled their eyes, and continued on their way, wondering just how long the hall could go on. Finally, they came to a split in the hall. One path continued forward, the other went to the left. From both came the sound of grinding gears, and metal clanging. Kurtis looked at Lara, an apprehensive expression on his face. With a shrug, he set his mind to using his farsee ability. First, he checked out the path straight ahead. Just as he reached his limit, he saw the source of the noise: a hallway simply full of sharp objects... or in the case of some: very heavy blunt objects. That would certainly be no fun... The second path held the same nasty little devices. With a mental sigh, Kurtis returned to his body, grumbling about it really not being his day. He informed Lara of the traps, and amazingly enough she looked as though this news was brightening her day.

Able to see Lara, from Kurtis' cam, Zip commented, "You get used to her deathwish after a while... If the traps don't work, she's gotta turn 'em on."

"It makes life interesting," said Lara with a shrug. "Forward, or to the left?"

"I wouldn't go either way," said Kurtis, "But if we've got no choice... Left, simply for the sake of not goin' in the same direction as before."

"Fine, I'll go forward then."

"No...We're goin' left. _Left_ woman," Kurtis corrected his partner, ignoring Alis and Zip's chuckles- obviously they knew something he didn't-, "You asked which way, I said left."

"I meant which way are _you_ going. We need to check both paths, and it will take less time if we split up. "

"Oh for the love of-..." Kurtis stopped, unable to come up with a proper argument as to why they shouldn't split up, other than that she needed protecting, and that wouldn't have gone over well, just then. "Fine, assumin' that they don't lead to the same room, I'll meet you back here."

Lara nodded, and started to head down the hall, but Kurtis grabbed her hand, and pulled her back towards him, kissing her. It was meant to be just a quick peck, before they went on their way, but neither wanted to pull away from the other, and the kiss deepened, until, for a moment, they forgot where they were, and why they were there. Zip and Alister both knew better than to try to interrupt. The pair separated slowly, still reluctant to be apart.

Remaining pressed against her lover, her lips hovering only an inch away from his, Lara asked, "What was that for?"

"To let you know things are back to normal," Kurtis replied. In other words, all was forgiven. "This is for luck, so you don't get yourself killed," he added, kissing her again. This time it was quick. "See ya, Croft, keep out of trouble."

"Me, get into trouble?" Lara said, playfully pushing him away, "I'll have saved your sorry skin at least twice before the day is over, Trent." She turned, and headed down her chosen path, before anything else could distract her, now in a better mood than she had been.

Kurtis watched her go, for a moment, before heading to his own set of traps. They'd still be in constant communication of course, but he wouldn't be able to look out for her. "Hey Zip, Alis, lemme know if you think Lara is goin' to do somethin' stupid, 'kay?"

"Will do, buddy," said Zip.

"It won't do much good," said Alister.

"I heard that," said Lara.

---------------

Review, please? If only to tell me that this chap sucks :p


	13. The Guardians

Well... Due to some miscalculations on my part, I think 14 may very well be the last chapter... And hopefully it will make up for the suckiness that is this one... One can hope, anyway.  
I'll be glad to be done writing this one, gotta tell ya XD Got another fic in the works already... (Stargate fic... There are 2 references to SG-1 in this chap... Kudos to you if you catch the second)

Chapter Thirteen

The Guardians

_L_ara stood in front of the first set of traps, counting in her head,_One...Two, three...Four...One...Two, three...Four..._The battering rams that were crashing together in front of her did so in a seemingly erratic fashion, but now that she had the pattern down, she was sure she could easily slip past them. _On three... One...Two...Three!_ She did a short hop forward, and was rewarded with a lack of dying via crushing. The one ahead of her was the one that showed her why the entire tomb was unstable; it was a big slab of stone, slamming into the ground every few seconds. It was also rather clear that whomever had designed these traps had an unhealthy desire to crush people.

She ducked under the easily, rather than waiting for it to retract all the way into the ceiling. The next was a rather cleverly concealed falling floor. However, not cleverly enough to fool Lara. Curious about what awaited her if she fell, she kicked a large stone onto the panels, triggering the trap. She looked down, and was surprised to see that there were no spikes, or something resembling a meat grinder... Just a very deep pit, with several shattered skeletons inside (letting her know just how far of a fall it was), and what looked like one fairly new corpse. It was hard to tell, with all the vermin having a go at it. Now thankful that she had declined Alessa's offer of breakfast, Lara looked for a way over the pit.

Above it was series of thick metal rings, that looked as though they had once been used to hold something heavy, aloft... Perhaps a bridge, for the people who'd been allowed inside the tomb. What their purpose had been in the past, however, didn't matter. All Lara needed was the rings, and for them to _stay_ in the ceiling. Hoping she didn't miss, she backed up a bit, ran forward, leaped out over the now-covered pit, and threw her grappling "hook" at one of the rings. The magnet hit, and stuck, thus allowing her to defy death again. Now was the tricky part: using the other three to get to the other side. Since she was hanging a little too low for comfort, Lara pulled herself up, a bit.

She noticed bits of chewed rope, tied to the rings... Someone had used them to get across fairly recently. Most likely the man who'd had the shears. Perhaps if she found his things, she could also find the other way out...

Time enough to think of that later, though. For now she had to finish getting over the trap floor, and doing so without any mishaps. It didn't take long, but it did take concentration, something that was broken several times by her friends, chattering in her ear- actually, Alister was chattering... Zip was adding derogatory comments when he felt the need-, or in the case of Kurtis; humming the Stargate SG-1 theme. Landing safely on solid floor, and dusting off her clothes, she said "Boys, I know it's difficult for you, but do you all think you could stop with the mindless chatting... And the humming?"

"Hey, sorry, Lara," Kurtis replied, not sounding sincere in the least, "But it's stuck in my head, it's either that, or the song that never seems to leave."

"Can't be worse than the noise you're making now," said Alister.

"Don't think so?" Kurtis asked, as Lara sighed, and moved on, knowing that now there was an argument going on, she was going to get no peace... She, however, wasn't expecting the song that she heard come from Kurtis, "I like to sing-a, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a... Care to say that's not as bad?"

Lara just barely stopped an unlady-like snort, "Well, not something I'd expect from you."

"Alright, so I spent a bit too much time watchin' old cartoons when I was kid... You can't tell me you've never seen the one with the barn owl, singin' that song... It has been permanently burned into my brain since I was six- ah, shit! I _hate_ this place!"

Whatever had happened, he was alive and in one piece, and, much to Lara's relief, no longer humming, or singing. From there on in, her path seemed to be trap-free, though she kept an eye out for any sign of a trap floor, or pressure-triggers to other traps. It wouldn't do, if she stepped in the wrong place and found herself beheaded by a swinging blade, or squashed by a really big rock. With her way so-far unhindered, Lara picked up the pace. She was on a time limit, after all. That was, if Alessa hadn't been lying about taking off at nightfall, which didn't seem likely. Not that there was time to think about it, but Lara couldn't help but feel there was something off about the woman...

"Odd..." Kurtis' voice interrupted her thoughts, "There's footprints in the sand here... But there were none back the way we came..."

"Maybe it's one of the nephilim..." said Alister.

"All the better for us," Zip spat, "One of you can just toss 'em into those traps and be done with it." His tone was one Lara hadn't heard him use, and it was slightly scary hearing it come from Zip...

"It may be from someone who came from the other entrance, and just turned back around when they saw the traps," Lara reasoned, hoping that Alister's assessment wasn't correct. She had no desire to meet with Karel and his cronies right then.

"Only one set," said Kurtis, "And they're leadin' away from the traps. Looks like somethin' just appeared here, and walked away."

Lara sighed, "Best not to think about it, lads... Lets just get what we came for."

---------------

Just as it seemed that the paths they had chosen would go on forever, both turned, and connected so suddenly that Lara and Kurtis collided with one another, knocking themselves flat on the ground. Lara was quick enough to save herself from hitting too hard, by catching herself. Unfortunately for Kurtis, he was neither as quick, nor as graceful as his partner, and didn't even manage to get off a nifty move with his telekinesis, before he hit the ground... Hard. Sand, as it happens, does not cushion falls well.

"Ow," was all Kurtis said, as he got too his feet. He took a step forward.

Lara was almost too late to stop him. She reached out, and grabbed the back of his shirt, yanking him back, with surprising force, making him choke. He was less concerned with oxygen, however, when he saw why she had grabbed him; he'd been a split second away from being impaled by the trap he'd triggered when he'd stepped forward.

"Thanks," he rasped, feeling as though his windpipe had been thoroughly crushed.

"That's rescue one," said Lara, with a smug look, "One to go."

Kurtis rolled his eyes at her, but said nothing.

--------------

Beyond the set of battering rams Kurtis had triggered was, surprise surprise, more hall... Or tunnel more like. However, to make this a bit easier to deal with, there was a torn, and frayed satchel lying half-buried in sand, and stones, from the ceiling. Both Lara and Kurtis practically pounced on the bag, searching for the shears that were supposed to be there. However, they found only a crushed canteen, a broken pair of glasses, and one very beat up notebook... Too beat up, actually. The pages had been ripped to shreds by something, and it looked too deliberate to just be a side effect of having been left in a tomb for a year.

Kurtis continued to dig through the sand and rock, while Lara perched on one of said rocks, thinking. It hadn't looked as though anyone had been digging in that spot recently, so that ruled out the nephilim, or any of their mercenaries. She looked up, about to tell Kurtis to stop, when she noticed something further down the hall; little alcoves in the wall, twelve of them, six on each side, evenly spaced. They looked to be almost up-right crypts, only they were empty... Curious, Lara got to her feet, and went for a closer look.

"Hey, Kurtis... Come here for a second, would you," she said, when she got close.

Kurtis stood next to her, took a look, and promptly began to whistle the theme of Tales from the Crypt. There were foot prints leading away from each crypt, and towards a light source, at what appeared to be the end of the long and mental-illness inducing tunnel.

"I'm guessing that you've found the guardians," said Alister, "Please tell me you're not going down there."

"No choice... They've likely got the shears, and that way is the only way out, if this is where they found Dr. Grace..." said Lara, "And, it's getting close to dusk, so we'd better hurry." With that, she headed towards the light.

With the distinct feeling that something bad was going to happen, Kurtis followed her.

------------------

At the end of the tunnel was a large, brightly lit chamber, devoid of all signs of life, save for the burning torches, spaced evenly along the walls. At the rear of the chamber was a stone altar, upon which sat two small objects. To the right was a doorway. Probably the way out. Guessing that the altar held what they were looking for, Lara headed for it, Kurtis right on her heels. They'd made it halfway to the altar, when clouds of sand suddenly billowed up in front of them, momentarily blinding the pair.

When the dust cleared, they were able to see the cause of the sudden mini-sand storm; in front of them stood twelve very dead-looking figures. Though not all of them seemed to fit with the place... A few of them looked as though they actually belonged in Egypt, the rest looked out of place... Going by their shields, Lara could tell that some were from Greece, others were of the Lux Veritatis.

Kurtis leaned closer to Lara and muttered, "I'm guessing these are the guardians?"

Lara nodded, just as one of the "skeletons" with a Lux Veritatis sheild stepped forward, and spoke... Though how he spoke was a mystery. Lara was well versed in many languages, but latin wasn't one of them, ironically enough. Pity really, because from what she could tell, that's what the undead thing in front of her was speaking in. Kurtis apparently understood though.

"He said he can sense my power, but he doesn't believe I'm one of the order... something about me being tainted...Also says anyone who takes the artifacts dies..."

Lara sighed. Today was not her day. Ignoring Alister's comments of "Lara...Those...Those are... You're talking to them, are you insane!?", she said, "Well if the truth about who you are won't work, lie..."

"What am I supposed to say?" Kurtis hissed, keeping a wary eye on the twelve figures before them... They seemed still as statues, but something told him that one wrong movement would change that.

"Use your imagination," Lara replied.

Kurtis rolled his eyes, but spoke to the apparent leader of the skeletons, again, in latin. Lara had no clue what he said, but whatever it was, it didn't seem to have done them any favors. If a skeleton could tense up, or have an annoyed expression, the leader certainly seemed to. His previously toneless voice now somehow sounded very angry, as he replied to Kurtis.

"Maybe we should run now... He's not buying what I said..."

"What the hell DID you tell him!?"

"That I was the great and powerful Oz, let's go."

"Oh for the love of-" Lara started, but was cut off when the leader drew the sword that hung at his side, and made a swing at her and her partner. They ducked just in time. "If we live through this I'm going to kill you!" she shouted, as she drew her pistols. Shooting their bodies would do no good, she knew, but perhaps obliterating their skulls would work.

Kurtis' chirugai zoomed around the chamber, in no particular pattern, hitting and destroying everything in it's path... It's effectiveness was questionable, though, for any bones that fell off the skeletons instantly replaced themselves... Swearing fluently in every language she knew, Lara dodged another sword swing, and fired both pistols at the skull of her opponent, the bullets shattering the bone. She expected it to piece its self back together, but it didn't... Instead the body dropped, unmoving. Okay, so, obliterating the head did work! Wonderful. Now she just had to keep that trend up. Instead of wasting her breath shouting to her partner, she simply thought about what she wanted to tell him. She knew he'd get the message.

He did. Suddenly the chirugai was heading for the skulls of the guardians, shattering the bones on impact. Sure that her partner could handle things, Lara ignored everything but the altar. There were two objects on it. One looked as though it had been there for at least a coupld hundred years, the other looked out of place; the shears. Whereas the spindle had been plain, save for it's fancy designs, the shears were a bit gaudy: black metal, with raised designs and symbols in gold, set with black opals, and dark rubies. The thing that had originally been the resident of the alter was an odd looking object, unlike anything Lara had ever seen before... Except for in the House of Fate. She smirked. This was why Jake Grace had come back to this tomb. He'd noticed the resemblance between the shears and the jigsaw-puzzle-piece-looking thing, and had wanted to get a closer look... The guardians likely hadn't bothered him the first time, since he had shown no desire to take the key.

"Lara, duck!" Zip's voice came through her headset loud and clear. Lara listened, though just barely in time to avoid having her head lopped off. Her attacker didn't last long, however, for she felt bone chips hit her. She stood, and turned around. Every one of the skeletons were... Er... Well, dead wasn't the proper term, since they'd been at least mostly dead to begin with. Maybe this time they would stay all dead. As Kurtis approached the altar, Lara reached out, and took the shears, half expecting the tomb to fall down around their ears. Nothing happened.

"Well that was anti-climatic..." Kurtis scoffed, "And, by the way, some guardians... Didn't do too well did they?"

Lara raised an eyebrow at him, handing the shears to him, "You're going to curse us... Just watch." She reached for the key, and pulled it off of the metal frame that held it upright. Again, she expected the roof to fall down on top of them, but nothing happened. Just as she thought they were in the clear, though, Lara heard an almost inaudible click. From experience, Lara knew that such clicks were rarely a good sign. She was right. The structure began to rumble, and there was a loud clicking of bones... The supposedly dead guardians had just pieced themselves back together, and were now advancing on Lara and Kurtis. They didn't look at all pleased. However, with the tomb about to cave in, Lara doubted that the guardians were the worst of their worries.

Wasting no time, Lara shoved the shears, and the key into her backpack, grabbed Kurtis' hand, and dragged him to the second doorway. Luckily their dead companions weren't able to move very fast with rocks falling around them. The doorway led to another tunnel, this one short. However, Lara and Kurtis' escape was blocked by several boards nailed over the opening... Probably something that had been added after the discovery of Grace's body. Of course, Lara wasn't going to let a little thing like a few boards stand between them, and freedom._Kurtis, if you would be so kind._ she thought to her partner.

Kurtis nodded, and a moment later, the boards shot away from the opening, letting in a flood of sand, and the last rays of daylight. Kurtis and Lara clambered up over the sand, and out of the tomb. Behind them, the structure collapsed. Before they could relax, however, there was the distinct sound of a shotgun going off, and the clear sound of a body hitting the sand. Both spun to the left to see Alessa holding the twelve-gage she'd brought with her, aiming it a body on the ground. She had a bandanna pulled up over her face, and her wide-brimmed hat pulled down low, likely to keep the sand out of her eyes, mouth and nose...

The body moved, and the pair could see that it was Gabriel.

"Get out of here, you poor excuse for a man," Alessa spat at the Nephilim.

"I don't know who you think you are, you insolent girl," Gabriel replied, getting to his feet, as blood dripped onto the sand, "But you're going to wish you'd never helped Croft, and Trent... I'll-"

He was cut off when Alessa pulled the trigger of the shotgun again, hitting him in the chest, "I said get out of here. You've no business here."

Deciding it would be a good idea to intervene before Alessa got herself killed, Kurtis and Lara scrambled towards the fight, Kurtis yanking his Chirugai off his belt, again, and Lara re-drawing her pistols. They heard a quiet murmur come from Alessa, though they couldn't hear what she said. The next thing they knew, Gabriel was getting to his feet, then he disappeared, in the proverbial puff of smoke... Alessa pulled the bandanna off her face.

"Well, guess it's a good thing I stayed out here... He was waiting at the exit for you. Damn Nephilim." At the pair of confused looks she got, she shrugged, "You thought I was clueless? I know what he was, and I know who both of you are... Though one thing I am confused about, what on earth were you after down there?"

"Just a few things we need for a date with destiny," Kurtis replied, still looking bemused.

Lara was about to ask just _how_ Alessa knew what she did, but she was suddenly reminded of what had transpired in the tomb... Since Kurtis was too busy being confused by Alessa's knowledge of the nephilim, Lara took the opportunity to hit him in the back of the head with her palm.

"Ow!" he said, rubbing his head, "What was that for?"

"Oz?" Lara replied, "Oz!? What the hell were you thinking? We might have been able to talk our way out of that!"

"Maybe, but it would have taken too long," Kurtis defended himself, "Besides, he'd already made up his mind to kill us... I figured I might as well have some fun..."

"And you know that how?"

"Well, I can read minds."

"You could have said something."

"Well, I didn't think of it at the time... I was trying to concentrate on when he was going to start attacking."

Alessa sat back, and watched the argument ensue. Somehow she got the feeling that this happened often.

--------------------------

Well?


	14. The House of Fate Revisited

Posting this early, cuz I really just wanted to get this done :p

I hate this chapter, I really do... The ending (before the epilogue) didn't turn out like I wanted, but I've just had so much trouble writing this one lately... Anyway... On with it... Enjoy

Chapter Fourteen

House of Fate Revisited

Alessa wasn't very forthcoming with details on just how she knew all that she did. The most that Kurtis and Lara were able to get out of her was that she had suffered at the hands of a nephilim, and wanted them wiped out. Beyond that, she would say nothing. Not even a hint at what had happened to her, though Kurtis would have bet anything that the scars on her face were a partial result. Even stranger than her reluctance to answer any questions, was her apparent lack of interest in asking any, either. After they had spent so long question her, Kurtis had been sure that Alessa would turn the tables, and start asking them what their purpose was in Egypt, what they'd acquired in the tomb... All that sort of stuff, but no questions came.

Instead, when they got back to Cairo, the woman simply wished them good luck, and started to head for her home. She ignored their shouts at her to wait, and disappeared into the night, mingling with the people in the streets. Kurtis, and Lara sighed in usion. The damned girl had left alot of unanswered questions. Who was she, what the hell had she done to make Gabriel vanish, and just how had she known who they were? Those questions might have been answered, if Kurtis hadn't found himself suffering from a massive headache, and at one point, a nosebleed, every time he'd tried to force his way into her mind. Alessa hadn't even flinched, though, which meant she either hadn't known he was trying to pry, or did know, and didn't care. But damn did she have some nasty mental defenses. Of course, anyone with half a brain could learn to block a mind-reader, it just took a lot of determination, and concentration, unless one was very adept at it. Kurtis himself could block other mind-readers out, save for Lara. Nothing he tried could keep her out, and vice versa.

"Alister, Zip," Lara said into her headset, "Find out whatever you can on our new friend... Find out if she really is a friend... I'd hate to have found another person who wants us dead. I want the info ready by the time we get back."

"On it," both Zip and Alister replied.

-----------------------

"Sorry, Lara," Zip apologized, two days later when Lara and Kurtis were back home, "I couldn't find a shred of information on your friend... It's like she doesn't exist..."

"It's likely she doesn't..." Kurtis said, "I'm pretty sure she lied about her name... Alessa Klorel? Fake name if there ever was one... "

Lara shrugged, "It was worth a try," she said, "But, we've more important matters to deal with, right now." She dug the three artifacts that it had taken a month to acquire out of her backpack, "We need to get back to the House of Fate."

--------------------

Kurtis lay stretched out on one of the couches, in Lara's room, as Lara paced around in circles, muttering to herself. If he'd really wanted to, Kurtis could have found out exactly what was on her mind, but right then he was more content to just watch her, and think. Over three months since he'd first seen her in France, and she was still a mystery to him, in many ways. For all that they were both constantly in each other's minds, neither had really taken the time to well and truly get to know the other. He'd been living in her home for a little over a month now, and he'd started to let himself think of it as _his_ home, now and then, when he wasn't careful. It was strange to find that the idea didn't really bother him. He found himself settling in, in this mansion, surprisingly well, all things considered... The fact that he was in love -(because let's face it, he was in love with the woman, had been for a while)- with the lady of the house had something to do with it, of course, but there was also the fact that he actually seemed to fit there.

That was something he wasn't used to... Fitting somewhere, fitting with other people. Alister and Zip had become great friends, and whereas before to say that he was making progress with Winston would have been wishful thinking, it was now true. And Lara... He couldn't think of anyone better suited for him. Though it was the fact that they were so alike that could cause the problems... Especially if the shared trait of running whenever things got too deep kicked in... But it hadn't yet, and considering all that had transpired over the last month, if it was going to, it would have.

Ah, yes... The last month. What a hectic month it had been. He'd nearly been killed more times than he cared to count, he'd fallen for a demon of a woman, and somehow gotten himself tangled up in a fight with destiny its self. One might ask if he'd ever been taught to pick his fights a bit more carefully. The answer was yes, of course, it was just a lesson he'd always ignored. Though if his month had been hell, he hated to think what it might have been like for Lara... She'd found out some disturbing things about her family tree, a few disturbing things about herself... Which brought him to another matter... The women of her family had been involved with the men of his, before. Lara could pass it off as a coincidence all she wanted, but there were just some things that couldn't be anything other than...well, 'fate', if you will. Then there was the strange occurrences with the chirugai, and the fact that they were now, as far as Kurtis could tell, permanently mentally bonded. Those things didn't just happen out of the blue, and somehow, he doubted that Lara's family history had anything to do with it.

Then there was Karel and his little minions. Or more importantly; Karel and his nasty little mind games. As far as Kurtis could tell, the nephilim hadn't tried anything else with Lara's head, which seemed a bit strange. If Karel could make someone see anything he wanted them to, why not toy around some more?

The possible answers to that question were unsettling at best.

------------------------

Snow again. Lara sighed as she and Kurtis drove up the mountain, back towards the temple where they'd first been reunited. Strange to think it had only been just over a month ago, yet it somehow seemed much longer.

"Are we there yet?" Kurtis asked, breaking the two-hour silence.

Lara raised an eyebrow at him, and glared at him as best as she could without taking her eyes off what little road there was. "Kurtis, don't start."

Kurtis gave her an innocent look in return, at which Lara rolled her eyes. For a moment she seriously considered lightly slapping her companion's arm, simply to start a play-fight that might make the time pass a bit faster, but thought better of it. One little slip, and they could find themselves in another wreck. Two in as many weeks wouldn't be a very impressive driving record for Miss Croft.

----------------------

By the time they reached their destination, dusk was quickly turning to night, not that it mattered. There didn't seem to be any sign of Karel, or his men, which was just the kind of small miracle that they needed right then. Hopefully this would be an easy job; get in, put the trinkets back where they belonged, and get the hell out. Simple. But then, hadn't all this started out as simple? Just a simple trip to Greece in order to nab some artifact with a colorful history, to take her mind off of all that had gone on. Look what that had turned into; one big, and life-threatening mess. Oh yes, things had gone SO well with that one.

But, one might hope that Lara and Kurtis' luck had improved since then.

The air wasn't as bitterly cold as it had been on their last visit here, much to their delight. Being outside in the cold weather was starting to get old. The distinct lack of footprints in the snow confirmed that no one had been around, since at least two nights before, that having been the last time there had been any snowfall. All the more reason to just perhaps start to hope that this would really be as easy as it sounded.

The inside of the place hadn't changed any, except for being a bit darker, due to lack of sunlight filtering through cracks. The place was also utterly silent, lacking the sound of ancient gears. Odd.

"Just me, or is it a little too quiet in here?" Kurtis mumbled.

"Just you," Lara said, her tone of voice letting her partner know she wasn't serious. They kept their voices low, and even Zip and Alister kept the chatter to a minimum, though it was unclear why. Something about the place just seemed to command silence, all of a sudden. The dark, and the silence added an eerie quality that hadn't been there before.

------------------

The trip to the chamber of fate was made alot faster this time, due to the lack of working deathtraps. As Lara dug the key that would open the large menacing doors out of her pack, she began to have serious doubts about the intelligence of this plan. Not something she normally did, doubting her own plans. Shaking her head, and banishing such thoughts from it, Lara pulled the key from her backpack, and placed in the indentation on the wall, next to the doors. As she did so, the sound of grating stone, and creaking hinges shattered the silence, as the large doors slowly swung inward, allowing Lara and Kurtis passage into the hallway beyond.

As the doors opened, torches along the walls of the hall sprang to life, one by one, illuminating the otherwise dark area. _Always flashy,_ Lara heard Kurtis think, with a quick shake of his head. Lara smiled a bit at that, and hesitantly took a step into the hallway. There was certain an overwhelming sense of power coming from the chamber at the end of the hall. Kurtis followed her as she continued to head for the chamber. Thankfully, the doors didn't shut behind them, which, frankly, was something that had been worrying both of them a bit.

The chamber that they entered was grand, but not massive. In the center was a black pool of some unidentifiable substance, that was perfectly smooth. All of their previous experiences clearly warned the pair that if you didn't know what it was, don't touch it.

_Just toss your partner in, instead,_ Lara thought, as Kurtis glared at her. In all seriousness, every fiber of her being was screaming at her not to touch the substance in the pool.

"The well of threads," Alister said, as Lara and Kurtis moved about the room, inspecting the decidedly bare walls. "Where-"

"All the life threads of every living creature on earth are, right?" Kurtis interrupted, looking at the only other thing of interest, in the chamber: a stone altar. Alister didn't answer, which meant he was pouting that he hadn't been allowed to go into a detailed explanation.

Curiosity got the better of Lara. She knelt down next to the pool, trying hard to see what lay beneath the marble-smooth surface. Just to see if it would work, she softly said, "Lara Croft" as she stared. Surprisingly, something happened. A thread, glowing with a soft golden light, rose from the black depths, to hover directly in front of Lara's face. Kurtis, by then, had moved to kneel next to his partner. But something was off. There wasn't just one thread, there were two, intertwined, almost completely fused together in some areas.

While she couldn't see their expressions, Lara was sure that Alister and Zip were doing great impressions of fish, since she herself was doing the same. It all fit, now.

"My God!" Alister exclaimed, "Lara..."

"I ain't an expert," said Zip, "But I'm guessin' as to what that means, and I'm thinkin' it's about as close to a sign from above as anyone's gonna get..."

Lara just blinked. She knew whose thread was woven with her own, and everything was falling into place, and frankly, it was a bit frightening.

"Alister..." said Kurtis, slowly, "Care to explain, 'cause, I got an idea, but I ain't sayin' it out loud, 'less it's true..."

"Your threads are woven together," Alister said, as though it were painfully obvious what it meant, "It means, that for lack of a better term, you two were _meant_ to be together... And yes, I know that sounds horrendously sappy, but it doesn't have to mean together in a romantic sense, just... together. Though I suppose-"

"Alister!" Lara cut the man off, "Please. Be quiet. " She needed to think... Needed to sort this out. Was this why she'd dreamed of Kurtis? Most likely. Why they had accidentally formed a permanent mental link? Probably. The cause of every other weird "twist of fate" that happened between them? Her money would be on it. And that was what scared her... That all of it, everything between them had been just part of some cosmic script, with herself and Kurtis simply being unknowing participants in the grand show that was fate. She didn't even want to begin to think that none of it had been a choice.

_No... It's all been real... Fate, or destiny, or whatever the hell you want to call it, has no God damned control over me._ She thought, more than a little irked. She watched the entwined threads disappear into the depths of the pool. She got to her feet, and yanked the shears, and the spindle out of her pack, and moved to place them on the altar. It was time to get out of here. Just get out, and go home. She put the items down, and started to head for the hall, before she found her path blocked, by a wall of emerald flames.

"I must thank you, Miss Croft," said the all-too-familiar voice of Karel, as he, and his lackeys, stepped through the fire, "You have made things wonderfully easy for us."

Lara moved backward, as fast as she could, nearly running into Kurtis in the process.

Karel only laughed, "Let's see... You found who we need to kill, you obtained both items, and now you have hand-delivered them, and yourself right where we need you."

Before Lara, or Kurtis had time to react, Karel had moved forward with inhuman speed, and had Lara by the throat. Kurtis tried to lunge for the nephilim, but was stopped by Gabriel, and tossed aside. Kurtis hit the wall, hard, his head slamming into the stone. Pain blurred his vision, and he was fairly sure that he could see little stars and cartoon birds floating around his head. His vision cleared, quickly, though he still couldn't bring himself to his feet. But right then, he was wishing that he was blinded again, or something. Anything to keep him from witnessing the sight before him.

Karel still had Lara by the throat, with one hand. With his free hand, he held a very large, very dangerous looking dagger. With a sideways smirk at Kurtis, the nephilim thrust the dagger into Lara's chest, at an upward angle, and gave it a twist, crimson staining the cream-colored sweater that Lara wore.

Kurtis wanted nothing more than to tell himself that this wasn't real, that it was just an illusion cooked up by Karel, but he couldn't. He knew this was real. And he also knew, as he fought to stay conscious, that there was nothing he could do about it.

Karel carried the dying woman to the altar, and set her down, while all Kurtis could do was watch. The nephilim spoke in greek, but as he had in his dream so many weeks before, Kurtis knew he was calling Lara's thread. Now the dream made sense... Why he had died in that dream, along with Lara. But knowing would do him no good. The thread was hovering in front of Karel now, but he didn't cut it. Instead, he looked towards Gabriel, and said something in a language Kurtis couldn't identify... Gabriel nodded, and did _something_, Kurtis wasn't sure what, for the next thing he knew, he was on the ground, writhing in pain. Through tears of pain, he saw his and Lara's threads being ripped apart

Suddenly, the pain stopped, but nothing was alright. Kurtis felt empty, like a shell whose inhabitant has abandoned it. He felt no pain from what was surely a serious concussion, he could hardly even bring himself to feel angry, as Karel easily cut the golden thread that was Lara's life...

The nephilim took the spindle, and spun it, like a top. Tendrils of blood from the wound in Lara's chest rose, and began to twine around the trinket, like some grotesque sort of thread. Despite lack of feeling, Kurtis could still think logically... Very logically, actually, with no emotions to cloud his judgement, and knew that this had to be stopped. So he shoved himself to his feet, and moved towards the three nephilim. He was after Gabriel first. He was the real threat at the moment, with Karel too busy doing whatever it was he was doing, and Lucas plastered into a corner, looking like a frightened kid.

Gabriel saw him approaching, and gave a slight smirk. Without even bothering to look at Karel, and stepped forward, to meet Kurtis. The first punch he threw, Kurtis dodged. He had an idea, and it required that he not get hit, and that he kept Gabriel's attention on him. It was working. Gabriel was cocky, and none to graceful, his movements were sloppy. It made Kurtis' job all too easy. Summoning up a blast of telekinetic power, he shoved Gabriel backwards... Right into the black pool.

Gabriel floated on the surface for a moment, looking shocked, though whether because he'd been caught off-guard, or because he was alive, was unclear. Then he tried to move. Mistake. The moment he so much as twitched, it was as if the substance in the pool took on a life of its own. Ooze-like tendrils snaked around the screaming nephilim, everywhere it touched Gabriel, his skin blistered, and peeled away. It was only moments before the ooze sucked him beneath the surface.

It seemed that with his death, whatever he had done to separate Kurtis and Lara's threads, was undone, for just as Kurtis threw his chirugai to hit the spindle, the threads snapped back together, and Kurtis was suddenly hit with every emotion that he should have been feeling right then, ten fold. There was an angry yell from Karel, which Kurtis took to mean than he had succeeded in his attempt to destroy the spindle. But right then, he wasn't in much of a mood to care. Right then he was wishing that the state of non-feeling would come back, so he could finish his task. He'd have been fine, if the feelings had come back normally, but no, they had to hit him like a bag of hammers. He looked up towards Karel, and Lara, to see just when the nephilim was going to start coming after him, and had to duck to avoid a fireball.

Karel was shouting, and swearing, and trying his damnedest to hit Kurtis, but anger made him sloppy, something that the Lux Veritatis would have to use to his advantage. Something stopped the fight, however. The sound Kurtis remembered, the sound of thousands of screaming beings. Behind Karel, the blood-thread was pulsing, and taking a different shape, it doubled, tripled, quadrupled its size, until it finally reached the size of a person, and assumed a humanoid shape. It kept it's blood color, but somehow, it had developed eyes; glowing gold orbs standing out against the crimson of Lara's blood. When it breathed, it was the sound of thousands of breaths...

The 'eyes' landed on Karel, and narrowed. "Fool!" said the creature, in it's many voices, "You have not completed the ritual."

Karel began to babble apologies, as he faced his creation. The creature seemed to want none of it, though, "You will pay for your mistake," it said. It grabbed the nephilim by the throat, and with no cerimonious speech, or actions, pulled the man towards its body, and to all appearances absorbed him.

Kurtis backed away from the creature, not keen on becoming its next meal, and looked for Lucas, after all, he'd saved Lara and Kurtis before, why not now... But the young nephilim was gone, he had probably fled the first chance he got. The creature had settled its gaze on him, and Kurtis decided that running might not be in his best interests... but perhaps talking...

"What are you?" he asked, the question being the first that came to mind, despite the fact that he knew it was a stupid thing to ask.

"We are many," said the creature, in its various voices, "We are nephili."

Kurtis circled around it, in an attempt to get to Lara, "Right... And how do I kill you?"

The thing laughed, a truly disturbing sound, "You do not, human... We will absorb the sacrifice, and become our true selves."

Kurtis bit back a rude remark... Even... Even if Lara was dead, there was no way he was going to let a red blob with a bad case of multiple personalities have her. "Y'know, this 'we' thing... I only see one of you... ever thought about seein' a shrink?" He was next to Lara's body now. Carefully, he reached down, and grabbed the shears that lay next to her head... If this creature was just one big mass of a life thread...

The creature spotted his movement, and with a shriek, it lunged for him. Alas, it was too slow. With a well-aimed throw, and a bit of help from the telekinesis, Kurtis buried the shears in the thing's chest. It screamed, the thousands of voices crying out, echoing through the chamber. It was enough to drive Kurtis to his knees, hands clamped over his ears. Then it suddenly stopped. There was a loud clang as the shears hit the floor, but nothing else. Standing, Kurtis could see that the thing was gone as well...

He didn't bother to linger on that fact, though. His eyes fell to the woman who lay before him, lifeless. Her once beautifully tanned skin was pale, cold. Her lovely hair was matted with her own blood... Kurtis wrapped one hand around the hilt of the blade in her chest, and wrenched it from her body, angrily. He pulled the corpse of his lover to his chest, and rocked back and forth slightly, silent tears dripping from his cheeks on to her hair... He didn't know how long he stayed like that, nor did he care. He could have stayed there for an eternity, for all he cared, and he might have, if not for the voices.

"Do we have to?" said one voice, female, a bit of a snobbish tone to it...

"Yes," said another, also female, this one sounded dry, disinterested, "You know the rules, sister."

"And it is really romantic, when you think about it," said a third, this one sounded dreamy, sweet.

"You're hopeless," said the first voice, scornfully.

Kurtis looked up, wondering if he was going crazy, and saw three women standing in front of him. All had black hair, and all looked identical save for the eyes. The first had bright, shining yellow, the one in the middle, steely grey, and the last, sheer black. All three were dressed in what seemed to be priestess robes. "What?" was all Kurtis managed.

"Typical," said the last one, the one with the snobbish voice, "We come all this way, and he doesn't even know who we are!"

"Silence," said the one in the middle, the disinterested one, "He knows, he just can't think."

"You wouldn't be able to either," said the first, the dreamy one. She looked at Kurtis, "We're the fates... Clotho," she gestured towards herself, "Lachesis," the one in the middle, "and Atropos," the last one.

Now Kurtis knew he had to be dreaming. This could not possibly be real...

"We've come to give you a choice," said Lachesis, "and no, this is not a dream. Your choice is this; you may continue to live your own life, and go on without this woman-"

"Then I finally get her," Atropos grumbled, "She's been dodging my shears for _years_."

Lachesis glared at her sister, "Or you may choose to share your life with hers... You would never be able to escape the connection, everything she felt, you would feel, be it physical, or emotional, and vice versa. You would literally be bound together, forever, and once it is done, there is no undoing it... If one dies, the other follows, no exceptions."

Kurtis, for all that he was sure this was a dream, answered instantly, "Do it." Even if this was a dream, at least he might get to see Lara alive again, even if it was only for a moment before he woke up.

"You see, I told you," said Clotho, as Atropos seemed to pout.

"Wait... Why are you doin' this?" Kurtis asked, suddenly curious... Even though it was just a dream.

"Because it's the rules," said Lachesis, "There are many points in ones life that my sister may cut their thread, but this was not one of those times, for Lara or yourself... And that thing was an abomination, going against every rule there is... So we dealt with it... You really think _you_killed it, child? I think not... We weren't going to let it wreak havoc on our carefully constructed plan... So we stepped in. But the damage has been done to Lara, and there is no way to re-spin her thread... It can only be joined with yours."

"Can we just do this and leave? I hate the mortal world," Atropos grumbled.

"Fine," said Lachesis, "Clotho, if you will."

Clotho nodded, and muttered something in greek. The two threads that were still hanging in mid air fused together, until they were one, glowing thread... Kurtis felt the life in the woman he held before she even took a breath. When he looked up, the fates were gone. He was expecting to wake up, at any moment... But Lara was speaking to him, asking him what had happened, and all Kurtis could do was hug her... He could feel her confusion, as she returned the embrace. But he made no attempts to explain... It was a long story, and right then, he just wanted to savor the moment...

EPILOGUE:

A year later...

"Well, Lara, Kurtis just left, though I'm sure you already know that,"

Lara, who was a little preoccupied right then, simply mumbled a quick affirmative. She always knew when Kurtis was on the move. And today he was leaving on his own little mission. He was still a demon hunter after all...

"He says he'll be back by the time your done with... Well with whatever it is you're doing."

"Yes, Zip, I know," said Lara, trying to concentrate. She swung from rock to rock, laughing as she did so. This was fun... The first real bit of fun she'd had since her death.

"Hey Lara," said Zip, clearly amused that she was enjoying herself, "I think you forgot your climbing gear on purpose."

"What would give you that idea?" Lara replied, jokingly. "Really Zip, it's like going up a set of stairs, only far less boring."

"Yeah? Well I wanna throw up, every time you look down," said Zip, just as Lara looked down. "Hey, Alister's back," he said cheerily, ignoring the view. To Alister he said, "Grab a headset."

"Back so soon?" Lara asked, as she made another leap, "From Florence, wasn't it?"

"Decided on Genoa at the last minute..." Alister sighed, "My dissertation will never see daylight at this rate. But never mind that, what are you doing in Bolivia?"

Lara didn't have time to answer right then. She had a big drop, and it had to be perfect. She felt a tinge of panic coming from the connection she shared with Kurtis, and knew he was anticipating the sudden rush he was going to get, when she lept... She smirked a bit, and let go, catching the edge of the cliff. She could sense her other half's relief that they were both alive. _Pansy._ Lara thought, as she answered Alister, "Ascending." She pulled herself up on to solid ground. "Alister, meet Tiwinaku, she's a lovely pre-Incan civilization, currently in ruins." _And hopefully I'll find answers about mother here... _

"Delighted," said Alister, as Lara took the first step forward, in what was to be quite the grand adventure.

-------------------

-cringes- god I hate this chapter...

I originally had a sequel planned to answer some of the questions that I left unanswered in this one... the main one being: Who is Alessa?... Well, since it is not likely that I will write the sequel... not any time soon, anyway, since I have another fic in the works, I'll answer that question now, shall I?

Alessa Klorel is actually Ariadni Karel, Karel's half-sister, "fallen" angel if you will... She is NOT a nephilim. Lucas and Gabriel, her sons, were half-nephilim half-actual angel... She was going to play a big part in the sequel to this, along with Lucas...

if you like, here is a picture I did of her a while back...

http//i11 dot photobucket dot com/ albums/ a180/ dark and morbid/ AKNoAngel dot jpg

(run that all together, and replace the "dot"s with "." of course


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